Rifts
by Chase1
Summary: Every so often in one “universe” something seeps through to another. They were chosen to fix this, because they themselves were anomalies. They were sent to make things right. They failed. But such a thing was inevitable. They were mortal. But such mo
1. Chapter One

The universe is infinite. In an infinite universe it is impossible to believe that anything does NOT exist. These things are fact. They are facts however that are understood by few. Men may comprehend galaxies, we may be able to see and detect things that are trillions of light-years away but we don't know anything about how big the universe actually is. There are expanses of space far greater than galaxies that we may refer to as universes and some actually make reference to a multi-verse which acknowledges more than one such expanse but this term is false. All such expanses are but a small part of the infinite expanse around them. Part of the one true universe. The omni-verse if you will and in it everything is real. Those things you saw in your dreams as a child somewhere exist. Other planets with life-forms like us exist. Other earths and aliens exist. Everything exists. This is one of the few things I am certain of for I have seen them with my own eyes. I have spoken with those you would call make- believe. I have watched as soldiers from what you thought were only video games gave their lives. I have seen such beasts as you would have only imagined in your darkest nightmares and more. I have done all this and still I have not seen even the smallest fraction of the universe. Nothing I have said or done will make any impact on the majority of what exists. But I will tell you what I know. My name I cannot tell you for it is something I do not truly possess. I have no discernable features. My appearance could be anything, I do not know the truth of it. All that I do know of my identity is my purpose. I am called the record. I am not unlike the one that some of you call the Watcher. I see all that is within my realm of comprehension and I remember it. However there is no society of my peers. I have taken no oath to sit back and watch. However I have rarely seen the need to get involved with the mortal world. Also, unlike the watcher I do not exist. I have never seen any proof of my existence and nothing has ever acknowledged me. I have no form or ability no way to affect what I see but my will is real. I suppose I could be described as chaos in the way I do affect things. Random possibility that results in my desires being fulfilled. This record is an example of that. I have no pen or ink. I have no hands with which to write. And yet this book is formed. My words are expressed. I am randomness incarnate. And so I will use it to express to you one of my fondest memories. It happened in a universe that truly does not exist. It was however a place of rifts. The universe is one and infinite. There are portions of the universe however that are not connected as others are. There are barriers that some may perceive as the ends of the universe. This is why the average mortal view of the universe is on a far smaller scale than the actual thing. However these barriers are not impassable. Every so often in one "universe" something seeps through to another. A person here, an object there.  
  
It wouldn't be much if the universe was small but in an infinite universe a little portion is still infinite. So a portion between portions was created. Pieced together from parts of everywhere else. One could use this to explain where your last sock goes when you do laundry but such a thing would be childish. But whatever powers that be decided this place was unfit for existence. Or perhaps somewhere in myself I saw fit to remove it. So proverbial strings were pulled and agents were sent. They were chosen because they themselves were anomalies. They were sent to make things right. They failed. But such a thing was inevitable. They were mortal. But such mortals they were.  
  
There were six in the beginning and they were marvelous. One day at relative random they just developed powers. They were not mutants, they were not given their powers by some unseen force they just one day had them. Some who came later chalked it up to the destiny force but it could not be detected. Nor could evidence for or against the argument be found. So the destiny force will do as an explanation. The destiny force which would someday make men omnipotent should they evolve far enough just flared to life as potential energy and took on a few new forms in these six. The first was their self proclaimed and often argued with leader. Chase Hall who perhaps by his own subconscious design found himself to one day have the proportionate abilities of a spider multiplied by 7. It was quite a shock to him but not all shocks are bad. Don't you in fact find shocks to be kind of fun? In some small way they are and some would find themselves to be seeking shocks soon after they've had one... these people often show later signs of other Masochistic tendencies. But that is a fairly random side note. The next was Callahan Connors. The friendliest person most people have met one day became the most powerful omnipath to ever still be considered mortal. His mind was so powerful that he could rearrange the structure of atoms. His focus was often however not up to such a task. Chris Shirreff came afterwards. Chris Shirreff who could summon forth unfathomable amounts of energy from within himself to be manipulated as he so willed. He could surround himself with energies so unknown that not even I could accurately identify them. After was first Andrew Campbell then Jason Hedge. Andrew was at first very similar to the character known as wolverine. But due to some measure of subconscious ego nearly fifteen times more potent. Later however he evolved into a chaotic shape-changing beast thing. His body's shape changed like liquid beneath a tornado and took on whatever forms he willed. His chaotic nature and natural ferocity made him a formidable life form. And Jason Hedge who had the biggest transformation to deal with. In the space between blinks he found himself transformed to a cybernetic monstrosity. His mind was linked to a computer it had created. His body was fused with metal enhancements of all types. And more than the enhancements he had within him he could create machines of nearly any imaginable type. As long as he had equal mass with which to work he could transform it to gadgets or weapons of mind boggling complexity. The realm of the technological became his playground. And last of the first six was Sarah Vjestica. Her change was not so noticeable. In fact she became far less noticeable with it than she was before. She became as a ghost. Able to make herself invisible or intangible at will and also able to make other matter equally so. She could pass unnoticed through nearly any defense. Along with her ability to teleport herself and others and the ability to possess any not adept at psionic conflict she was as formidable as the rest. Together they adapted to the changes they faced and sought to accomplish much in their own world. They banded together against the evils they could find and even thwarted evil gods in their attempts at justice. Their adventures in their own time however were insignificant at best when weighed against the realm of the rifts. They were plucked from their respective lives and placed in the space between spaces. They were told the place should not be and yet does. They were told to set things right. And thus an entire "universe" was placed in their hands. Their lives, their dreams, their very souls were put to the test. I suppose I'll start their story sometime before they entered the rift-realm in order to give you an idea of who they really are and what they were accustomed to. So we'll begin with them, lets say twelve hours before the rifts tore their lives apart. And to begin lets focus on Chris. At this point Chris and the others had possessed their considerable abilities for almost 5 years now and were quite accustomed to their use. And unlike many others in the universe they had a fair modicum of control over their lives. All of them had jobs they kept during the day time and some of them had serious relationships. And yet all of them found time to spend with each other, not only in action as the super-heroes they thought themselves to be but also as ordinary friends doing ordinary things. This was one of those times. It was about 11:00 AM and Chris was at Chase's apartment visiting with his friend. They were at the moment doing the same thing they usually did when Chris visited. They were playing video games. And the game they were currently playing was the same game they had been playing for the last 3 and a half years. It was a game for the now out dated Xbox console called Halo. And currently as it had always been since Chase first obtained the game Chris was getting beaten... badly. Despite his three years of attempting to beat Chase at the game he simply never could. His best effort and most clever plans always somehow unraveled at the last possible second usually resulting in Chris's character being blown to bits or shot to death. The worst part of it was that Chase didn't even do anything particularly special. It just seemed that he caught on to the attacks at the last moment and got incredibly lucky. Chris had often accused Chase of somehow using his "special abilities" to cheat in the game. Saying that his spider-sense somehow worked on behalf of the video game character he controlled but Chase assured him that it didn't. Still though each time they played Chris would get fed up with losing and use his own special talents to cheat for himself. Using his ability to manipulate energy patterns he would change the electrical signals moving from the controller to the console thus controlling the actions of the other player. In this he controlled Chase's actions and had him walk into traps. It was a dirty trick but Chase was used to it so it didn't bother him much. But it occasionally got the two of them into argument. "Goddamnit Chris! What the hell are you doing?" Chase half shouted as he lost control of his character and it was blown to bits. "You're cheating again". "Really?" Chris asked playing stupid. "I didn't know there were rules about using grenades" "You know what I mean you bastard now quit messing with my controls." And as he said this Chris did just that. With only slightly more focus than before he started to manipulate the console itself. Now Chase's screen shifted from first person view to third and his character began break dancing. After a few brief moments of old Michael Jackson dance routines the character proceeded to blow his own brains out with the pistol he carried. There was a pause as the two of them watched the display on the screen. With Chris smiling like a madman and watching his efforts in action he didn't notice Chase's actions. Chase was also smirking but for a different reason. With a slight twitch of his wrist his watch seemed to unravel in some miracle of technology. It unfolded and became more of a gauntlet covering everything of his forearm between his knuckles and a quarter of the way up to his elbow. As his watch did this on one wrist another identical gauntlet materialized on his other wrist. If you had known Chase in costume at all you would have known that these devices were his one and only weapon. They served as web-shooters, Dart guns, Brass knuckles, Shields and claws all in one. And with the spider design emblazoned in the center you could immediately tell that he emulated the character known as Spider-man. From beneath the wrists a black fabric spread out over his body. His clothes seemed to disappear as the fabric spread over them giving the costume an appearance of being skin-tight. In the span of a second the costume had spread over his entire body and you could see nothing more of his skin. It was entirely black with the exception of two opaque white tear-shaped lenses over his eyes that each had a silver lining and the silver spider symbol on his chest. And the torso was covered with what looked to be another layer. It was also black but appeared to be a vest providing extra protection as though he was wearing kevlar beneath the black fabric that the rest of his costume was made of. As soon as the costume had taken its place and the gauntlets were operational he made use of them Firing a large burst of the sticky grey substance known as web fluid directly into Chris's face. "MMPHFFGMM" was all Chris managed to say as the fluid began to solidify blocking his vision and filling his mouth. There was a second of silence as Chris grasped at the webbing trying futilely to pull it from his face. However, lacking super-strength as he was in normal form the webbing was far too strong to yield to his meager efforts. Chase let out a laugh as he leaped upwards and flipped over the back of the couch they both sat on. Landing and bounding again he had opened the nearest window and was crouching in the sill before a full second had passed. No longer had he began crouching there than Chris had decided that he had enough. At first all one could see was steam bellowing out from where the webbing touched his skin but after a second the energy became visible and the webbing was incinerated. Now completely engulfed in a blue energy that obscured his features was Inferno. The energy had the appearance of flame and tongues of it burst forth from his body as flame would but its blue color was no like flame at all. The blue of fire is light and partly transparent. This was strong and relatively dark And the lining of the tongues and flares of it were gold. Through it you could see almost nothing of Chris. No hair, No facial features, no clothing or anything. All you could see was his basic humanoid form. You could see his arms, legs, torso, and head but nothing else. Except his eyes. While you could not see the whites or pupils you could easily distinguish between his eyes and the rest of him. They burned with far more intensity than the rest of him and their glow left a trail of a darker blue than that which engulfed him. He quickly scanned the room looking for the spider which had assaulted him. Finding him in the window sill beckoning he charged towards him. Flying across the room at speeds the eye would not be able to trace had it not been for the glow he aimed to tackle Chase and send him sprawling out into the street but Chase's agility gave him the advantage. Back-flipping out the window he went out and down avoiding Chris's attack by no more than an inch. Chris flew out the window past him and turned around several meters afterwards. Hovering in the air ten stories above the street he watched Chase as he allowed himself to fall to the street level. As soon as he landed he leaped again and fired web- line from his gauntlets. The line found the street-lamp it was aimed for and he used it to swing outward further into the street. Using more such street-lamps as targets for his lines and the occasional apartment building outcropping he whipped away in a zigzag pattern both he and Chris were well accustomed to. In seconds he was nearly out of Chris's sight and was still going. With a laugh Chris followed in the air. "Fine. If that's the way you wanna play this then that's how we'll play it." He called out as he sped along after his web slinging friend. A moment later they had reached the area they were aiming for with Chris still gaining on Chase. They reached the end of the city and kept going into a reasonably sized forest area that they often used for practice. Continuing well into the forest Chris decided it was his chance to begin the little exercise. Bringing his arm a surge of energy appeared in his palm. Bringing it forward again he threw the bolt of energy directly at Chase's back. Chase, or Spider as he was called when in costume tensed sensing the attack and twisted to avoid it. Abandoning the web-line he had just fired he yanked back on the one he was currently swinging on sending himself up into the air and well away from the path of the energy bolt. Twisting through the air he landed on the trunk of the tree he was swinging from a few feet from where his line was attached. Yanking on the line he ripped a limb from the tree and jumped at the hovering form of Inferno. Seeing the attack Inferno pointed his palms in Spider's direction and sent a shockwave of energy at him. The wave was spread too wide too fast and Chase could not dodge it. Instead he brought the log up in front of him and kicked off of it. The large log sailed through the air between Spider and the quickly approaching energy wave connecting with it directly in the spider's path. Where the log hit the energy surged and flashed and weakened for no more than a split second. That split second however, was all Spider needed. As the log quickly burned away Spider came flying through using the momentum of his leap and surrounding himself with a cocoon of webbing. With the protection of his webbing and the momentum of his leap Spider managed to penetrate the wave completely unharmed and only slowed by a millisecond. Seeing Spider come through the wave caught Inferno completely by surprise. He had no time to react before a web covered fist connected squarely with his jaw sending him hurtling from his position in the air to the ground. As he landed on his back Spider landed directly on top of him feet first. Knocking the wind out of him and again leaping to safety.  
  
After a brief pause as Inferno caught his breath and climbed to his feet he scanned the forest are around him. Spider was nowhere to be seen. Knowing his friend's skill at stealth he knew he would not see the Spider till he wanted to be seen. Not bothering to try to flush him out with attacks he tried mockery instead. "Come on Spider" he called "That all you can do?" a laughing response came from the trees somewhere to his left. "Looked like enough when you were hacking up a lung on your back over there" Spider called back. Reacting as quickly as he could Inferno sent a series of bolts into the bushes to his left. Knowing he wouldn't hit the spider he watched the area intently hoping to catch a glimpse of his friend dodging. When he had no luck hitting or even seeing Spider he tried his words again. "What's the matter Spider? Scared to fight face-to-face?" he yelled. "Not at all came the response from directly above him and getting closer. As he looked up energy flaring brighter all he saw was another log quickly coming down towards his face. Energy flaring e burned away the log before the impact struck but was again caught off guard as Spider landed directly behind him and struck him with both feet right in the small of his back. Staggering forward from the force of his blow Inferno spun and let loose a fierce series of bolts and beams trying to hit Spider with one of them. Leaping and weaving among the blasts Spider was slowly making his way closer to Inferno in an obvious attempt to land another blow. Knowing full well what Spider had planned he continued the flurry of blasts attempting to box Spider in with them. As he performed a series of unbelievable dives, rolls and flips avoiding all harm at the hands of Inferno and his blasts Spider managed to close the distance between the two of them to no more than a couple of feet. Before he could throw a punch however Inferno changed tactics. Letting his energy flare he unleashed another surge of energy this time in all directions. Like a star going super-nova he blasted everything within twenty meters of himself. Not quick enough to dodge the widespread attack Spider only managed to bring his arms and legs up in front of him to tuck and roll with the blast. The impact of the blast he sailed through the air with little damage done before he landed however Inferno attacked again. Launching himself in Spider's direction he quickly caught up with him before he touched ground and threw a ball of condensed energy directly at him. With no where to dodge to and barely any time to react his Spider sense screamed as the blast caught him in the chest. The impact sent Spider flying further into the bush and his body seemed to fold around it as he sailed. His path sent him directly into a large oak tree several feet above the ground he struck the tree with a sickening crack. Suddenly stopped in its path by the obstacle the tree posed the ball of energy burst and exploded against Spider's chest. As the flash and sound subsided Inferno was greeted with the sight of Spider laying against the tree with his arms limp at his sides. Letting his energy extinguish itself Chris dropped the few feet he had been above the ground and ran to Spider's side. "Oh man are you alright?" He asked genuinely concerned that he had severely hurt his friend. "Uuuuugh" Was Chase's response. "Er yeah... I'm fine." He said and then paused. "It's a good thing I was wearing a helmet.... oh wait..." He said and managed a weak chuckle. Then with a sudden frenzy of motion Spider threw a fistful of dirt into Chris's face. Reacting instinctively his energy flared back to life and burned away the dirt before it actually hit him. Despite the fact that there was no longer anything to get in his eyes he still instinctively brought his hands up to shield his eyes. Using this as his opportunity to renew his attack Spider pushed off the ground with one hand and kicked Inferno in the chest as his hands came down as the wind was knocked out of him Inferno grunted and did not see Spider flip up above him. Because he did not see this he was not prepared for both of Spider's feet to suddenly connect with the back of his head. Sprawling to the ground face first the burning hero laughed. "Oh its on" he said. And on it was. Four nearly three hours it went on like this. Spider dodging the majority of Inferno's attacks and moving in to land a few of his own. Every once in a while though when Spider moved in for the attack he would get caught with a lucky blast from Inferno. But the rest of the fight was otherwise the same. The same that is until one particular part. Nearly three hours later. It seemed just like any other part. Spider dodged and hid among the trees and Inferno attempted to flush him out. One lucky shot however brought Spider low. It did not hit him. Instead it struck the tree branch that Spider intended to land on. Missing the destroyed foothold he sailed out into plain view and was greeted by a flurry of blasts designed to box him in like last time. Preventing him through good timing from dodging to the outside Inferno began to close in Spider's dodging space. Forced into a narrow dodging space Spider had nowhere to go when Inferno used another wide range attack. Launching himself forward at Spider he used himself as a projectile. Tackling him around the mid-section he flew with spider into the same large oak tree ha had connected with earlier. It was a little shaken and singed around the edges but it held strong even when the two of them collided with it at speed. The crack that sounded was deafening and the impact shook what remained of the leaves from the branches the tree again held though and stopped them in their path. Pinning him to the trunk of the tree Inferno grasped Spider around the throat and held him at arms length. Bringing one fist back and surging power into it he prepared to slam it into Spider's face. "Alright give up Chase." he said panting slightly "You lose". Before Chase could respond however from his position dangling against the tree another voice came from off to the side. "It ain't over yet" The voice yelled as something heavy collided with Chris. The impact came as a surprise and was enough to cause Chris to release Spider and stagger under the force of it. Protected as he was by the energy that surrounded him he was not harmed even though the collision would have instantly killed a normal man. The thing that hit him was human. Or at least human like. It ran and leapt upright and had arms and legs and a head in the same basic proportions of a human but nothing else was the same. It skin was exposed on its upper body and its skin was a strange grey color. It was built sturdily and was wider and stockier than any human could ever be. It seemed to Spider and inferno that the thing was half human, half Rhino. This was at present not far from the truth. It was Andrew Cambell. Another of their friends with uncanny abilities and an interest in a friendly sparring match. As they watched in stunned silence Andrew's form changed. His muscles flowed like liquid from one form to the next. His large muscular body shifted proportions and no longer appeared part Rhino. Instead his face elongated and came to a rodent like point and his skin grew a thin layer of grey fur. His thick stubby fingers stretched out and grew long vicious looking claws. Before either of the others could identify his new form as one of a large man-mole he had dove to the side and burrowed into the ground effectively hiding himself from view. There was a brief instance of silence between Spider and inferno as they sat and wondered how to react. Then both leaped into action. Inferno took to the air and hovered above scanning the ground for a sign of his new quarry while Spider scrambled up the tree he had been leaning against and disappeared from view in the tree tops above. As Inferno searched he saw no sign of movement or trouble right up till the point where Andrew pounced. The attack came not from the ground as Inferno expected but from the trees to the side. Andrew leaped from the upper branches of a nearby tree in the form of a huge scaled lion. The creature was some sort of cross between a crocodile and a lion. Its heavy scaled body collided with a startled Inferno and he didn't react in time to protect himself effectively. The beast wrapped its front legs around his upper body and shifted again. This time to some sort of Gorilla-Grizzly. It wrapped its arms around Inferno's chest ignoring the energy that bit at his flesh. It began to squeeze. Constricting his chest Andrew held on while Inferno tried in vain to wriggle out of his grasp. Squeezing tighter Inferno writhed and grunted in pain. Realizing that physical efforts would be futile he began to burn. Increasing the normal energy that surrounded him inferno pushed outwards with it in one high intensity surge. With a flash Andrew's grip was broken and he was thrown from his place around Inferno's chest. With a slight yelp and the distinct scent of burned fur he landed with a crash amongst the bushes below. Gasping for air Inferno filled his newly freed lungs with air as Andrew scurried from the bushes and grew wings. Taking to the air he sailed up above the tree-line to circle around for another attack. Inferno ignored this for a second and scanned around for Spider. He knew better than to forget about Spider's presence and knew he had to find his agile adversary before he regretted waiting too long. Not seeing Spider anywhere in the immediate area however he was forced to keep his focus on Andrew. "What are you doing Creature?" He called out to Andrew by his code-name. He had chosen it years three years ago as the only name that truly described his ability. All agreed that his newer name was far better than Morphazoid which he had gone by for the first year of his super-hero career. The only response he got however was an ear-piercing scream. As Creature burst through the canopy of leaves and branches above he was no longer bird-like as he had been when he took off. Now he was still winged but a different creature altogether. His again somewhat rodent-like features and leather wings came whipping through the air with a shriek meant to intimidate. Holding his ground (or air rather) Inferno hovered where he was and braced himself for whatever attack Creature had planned. Before the creature collided with Inferno however he screamed at him again. This time the scream was no longer just to intimidate however. This time it had some force behind it. A concentrated burst of sound burst from the man-bat's vocal chords and slammed against Inferno's burning form. His energy rippled as the sound waves collided with it and he clutched at his ears in an attempt t dampen the excruciating sound. Still flying directly towards the hovering form of Inferno Creature shifted again this time twisting around to slam his new hind legs into him. He kicked him in the chest and allowed himself to fall to the ground. Inferno landed on his back again several meters from Creature. As creature spun and charged towards him Inferno rose to his feet and charged right back at him. Inferno's energy surged and crackled as he increased the burn for more power and Creature shifted to run upright. His powerful legs pushing him forward and his hoofed feet slamming onto the forest floor he leaned into his charge and aimed his horns towards Inferno. They both pushed themselves to full force as they braced for the impact of their collision and truth be told nobody really knows which would succeed. They did not get to determine which because the impact never came. Instead at the last second Spider intervened. Swinging into the path of the two of them. With one hand holding his web-line and the other holding a fist full of dirt he brought both of his feet up into Creatures jaw with enough force to knock over a building. In this case it didn't stop Creature. Instead it stunned him in mid-stride and forced him to stand up straight no longer prepared for impact. Before Spider let his momentum carry him out of harm's way however, he threw the dirt he was carrying again directly at Inferno's eyes. Startled by Spider's sudden appearance in front of him and seeing only something coming at his face he again reacted by leaning back and shielding his face with his hands. Thus Inferno and Creature collided with each of their respective full forces. However since neither of the two were braced it hit them both pretty hard. Colliding at the shoulder their momentums carried them past each other after a bone-rattling impact that landed each of them on their backs several meters past the point of impact. Spider used the momentum of his swing to carry himself up till he was directly above the point of collision and with a tug, launched himself downwards landing with both feet first on Creature's face. Slamming him into the ground and taking the fight out of him and then leaping upwards to do the same to Inferno. Stepping off of him as his energy again extinguished itself. He walked over and let himself fall into a sitting position at the base of the oak tree he had twice collided with. From there he waited. It didn't take long. Both of his fallen friends were very resilient and were awake and on their feet again in about ten minutes. As they rose he spoke very clearly and tried very hard not to laugh. "I guess I win then eh guys?" As they mumbled to each other and groaned in relative pain their general response was something very profane. "So" Spider continued allowing his costume to retract and his regular, civilian clothes to again take it's place. "What do you guys wanna do now?" He asked. "I'm hungry" Answered Andrew resuming his human form. Standing there between the two of them Andrew often looked slightly out of place. It wasn't that either of his friends were even the slightest bit racist but his short black muscular form stood out between Chris and Chase who were both tall white and relatively lean. They weren't scrawny but they were hardly "ripped" as others often put it. And their dark casual clothing hardly matched Andrew's either. Dressed in a dark blue tank top and a pair of old track pants he looked like he was working out at the gym rather than relaxing with his friends. But the appearance that he didn't fit in didn't matter at all to any of the three of them. They had been very close friends for more than five years now and had been through so much together that their color or beliefs didn't matter. For the most part it never did. They depended on each other both as friends and as allies in battle and nothing would change that. At least nothing they could ever foresee. And so as Chris and Chase both agreed with Andrew's idea they began to wander off back in the direction of the city they had come from. Sped along by their respective super-powers they made good time and were back within city limits in less than an hour. When they arrived however they couldn't get food as they planned. Not because of a lack of money but because they were kinda waylaid. Chase, Andrew, Chris get over to the docks we got a problem here!. Came a voice in their heads. They all recognized the voice immediately. It wasn't that they shared some sort of mental disorder. Unless you count being friends with the most powerful omnipath to ever live a mental disorder. It wasn't personal but it was a little disturbing at times. It was Callahan Connors. Also known as Psyche, the most "random" person most people will ever meet. And a friend to more than one entire alien species Callahan was a formidable ally. Reacting instantly the three of them Shifted back to their "costumed" forms. Chase's costume spread out upon him and he was once again Spider. Chris once again ignited the burn and became Inferno and Andrew shifted to his standard costumed form which was basically him with no shirt and the face of some beast-like animal. And as soon as the three of them were in form Andrew and Chase each took one of Chris's hands and held on as he took off at full speed. Since Chris could fly far faster than almost anything else on earth when he really let loose they arrived at the docks in less than a minute. The sight that greeted them there however was one it would take several minutes to shake off. Down on the ground were five giant robots. It was like a scene out of an old b- movie. Giant killer robots were storming out of the sea and destroying everything in their path. Unfortunately for them the six super powered individuals who collectively called themselves the Anomalies now stood in their path. The three other members of their team were already at the scene trying desperately to stop the robotic rampage. So far they weren't having much success.  
  
Psyche was trying to use his telekinesis to physically force them back into the sea. Failing that he just used it to hit them really hard. Tech, also known as Jason hedge had retooled a nearby bus into a high tech tank and was using the many weapons he had built on board to bombard the deadly machines. His efforts had little effect however. As did Callahan's. Even Wraith who had been carrying object into the machines and leaving them there to gum up the inner workings of the robots seemed to be accomplishing nothing. Chase surveyed the scene from his position dangling from Inferno's arm. No longer joking around he was planning on being in control. "Alright Cal we're here. Did you psi-scan these things?" Spider said projecting his thoughts towards Psyche. But of course. Came his reply there's no psychic signature. They aren't alive.  
  
"Alright everyone here's what we're gonna do. Wraith, Creature you're on damage control. Make sure these things don't hurt anyone and see if you can help any injured. We'll focus on the one in the lead. Tech you're with me. Inferno blow a hole in one of these things. Use as much power as you can. Psyche cover him. Tech and I'll do the rest." He ordered as Psyche relayed his commands directly into the minds of his allies. And with that he and Creature let go of Inferno's hands and dropped the forty stories or so to the hard concrete floor in the path of the machines. Looking up at the machines Spider had to say he was impressed. The things were fifty stories tall and armor plated. On their shoulders were twin cannons that looked energy based. The proportions of the machine's weren't quite human. They were too stocky. The arms were too thick in relation to the torso but nobody would likely notice this fact due to the fact that they were still giant killer robots bent on destruction. When taking this into account it doesn't matter if they're giant killer robots bent on destruction that are slightly out of proportion. The lead robot decided to deal with the slight annoyance that Psyche represented and raised its arms to grasp him. Failing to grab the far too fast form of Psyche the thing instead settled on trying to blast him. Opening its hands and splaying its fingers out a ball of energy appeared in each palm and, after a brief pause lanced forward towards Psyche. Swinging his hands to the side Psyche imitated a baseball swing and telekinetically swatted the energy bolts to the side. They exploded upon impact with his teke and the robot accomplished nothing. Meanwhile the other four robots used their own palm launchers and shoulder cannons to turn the dockside area of the city into a wasteland. Psyche tried to stop the blasts but could not reach them all and many hit their mark. Buildings were reduced to rubble and roads turned to smoking craters. Luckily due to the heroic efforts of Creature, and Wraith no innocent bystanders were killed. At the last moment they were plucked from their vehicles or offices or from their position in the street and moved to a safer location. All the while Inferno had been charging up an attack. Finally ready he held his hands out of him and released the energy he had built up. A thick solid beam of dazzling white energy lanced forth from his hands and shot forward at the lead robot. It hit the robot square in the chest and burst through him like a bullet through tissue paper. Surprisingly the robot did not fall. Instead it turned its attention to its assailant and fired both its shoulder cannons directly at him. Inferno made no attempt to dodge. Instead he held his arms at his sides and simply soaked up the energy that struck him. The flash of red light that appeared at the impact quickly turned to the familiar dark blue as it was assimilated by Inferno's burn. "Thanks for the reload" Inferno muttered to himself as he began charging up another burst of energy. Swinging into action Spider leaped over to Tech and pulled him from the tank. Then with a series of leaps that each would cover a city block he carried Tech across the distance between himself and the lead robot. With another series of leaps and the use of an occasional web-line he carried Tech up the distance to the hole in the thing's chest. Dumping him into the hole he said a single word and continued up towards the head. "Override" He said as he scrambled further up towards the things head. Then from his position right between the things mechanical red eyes he stood. Laced his fists together raised them above his head and brought them down as hard as he could into the robot's mechanical brow. There was the loud ringing sound of something hitting metal and then there was the sound of Spider's voice. "OW" he said. "Owowowowowowowowow.....What the hell is this thing made of?" he yelled as he leaped over its gigantic hand as it attempted to swat him. "Well you got its attention" Psyche said telepathically. "Indeed I did" Spider replied. As he watched the narrowly avoided giant metallic hand slam into the things own face. There was a loud crash and the sound of tearing metal and the thing's hand went through its face more than halfway through its entire head. There was a pause followed by the sound of sparks popping and then the thing just toppled over lifeless. After Spider's laughter and the sound of the thing falling and landing the only noise from within was the sound of Tech cursing profusely from within the wreckage of its chest. "Well they aren't too smart are they?" Spider called from where he landed again on the concrete. "Guess not" Called Inferno. And with that the battle began anew. "Alright change of plans guys. No fancy stuff, lets just tear them apart" Spider ordered. Which was exactly the order that the rest of them wanted to hear. Creature, having abandoned the attempts to find wounded or trapped civilians decided it was his turn at the machines. If Spider brought one of these things down then so can I. He thought as he charged towards the nearest robot's legs. Running out to the end of the dock Creature dove off and hit the water shifting. His form disappeared beneath the surface of the murky water and reappeared almost instantly in the form of a giant Shark- man. The sight of Creature's form reminded onlookers of an old cartoon show called street-sharks which is a fact that is entirely irrelevant. Tearing through the water Creature finally reached the metallic surface of one of the robot's armor. Reaching out with his large inhuman arms he tore his fingers into the metal of the armor and slammed his head into it. Before his head impacted however it had again shifted form changing to some sort of Ram. Colliding loudly if ineffectively with the robot's knee he was left with nothing to show for his efforts but a headache which was about to get worse. In response to his assault the thing quickly lifted it's leg and kicked it out in front of it. The action sent Creature flying from the water and landed him heavily on his back on the concrete floor of the peer. Such a landing would have only annoyed Creature had the robot not stepped on him immediately afterwards. Now pinned beneath 50 stories and countless tons of high tech killer robot Creature was as near as any could figure, out of the fight. The robot did not accomplish much by stepping on him however since the moment he stepped onto the peer was the exact moment Tech re-emerged from his place buried beneath the wrecked robot. And when he emerged he did not do it unprepared. Climbing out from the debris he was clad in some sort of high tech exoskeleton that he fashioned from parts inside the destroyed machine. The armor had weapons and armor like nothing Tech had built in nearly three years and it was not often that something would get him so angry that he would ever consider building them. The weapons included two shoulder-mounted energy cannons powered by the fallen robot's entire power core. As it turned out the things attack power was far more impressive than one would expect a jury-rigged weapon to ever be. Taking no more than two steps from the hole he crawled out of Tech turned and fired both cannons directly the Creature-stomping robot's torso. The weapon's discharge lanced forward too fast for the average eye to trace and slammed into the robot's armor plating with enough force to puncture the dense mystery metal altogether. The detonation of the energy pulse was far more impressive than its kinetic force however. There was a brilliant flash of light as the energy exploded outwards from a few meters beneath the armor plating and when the flash subsided there was nothing left of the robot above its waist. No debris, no shrapnel, nothing. "Take that you stupid overgrown homicidal toaster!!" Tech Screamed as he observed the smoking remains of his previous target. Turning to another robot he attempted to fire again. The design of his weapons was too much for the components however and his second firing attempt only resulted in a small explosion. Toppling the exoskeleton over and again trapping Tech in a pile of melted metal and tangled bits of debris. The rest of the conflict was left to the others. Spider, again trying to take the lead, began grabbing nearby empty vehicles and using them as weapons against the oncoming mechanical marauders. Using the considerable strength that came as part of seven times the proportionate abilities of a spider, it took some effort but the random k-cars and motorcycles made excellent projectiles. Slamming into the machines' armor plating and shattering with a spray of wreckage and metal bits the robots turned their attentions to the tiny man on the road throwing things at them. While their attention was turned the two heavy hitters of the team attacked. Psyche and Inferno simultaneously attacked the robots on either side of the group. Inferno used the energy he had built up along with the energy harvested from several dozen blasts and attacks from the robots to reduce his target to falling chunks of white hot metal slag while Psyche focused all his considerable force into telekinetically widening the tiny gap between the head an neck of his. The result was the head being severed, hovering in the air in front of the robot and eventually slamming into the damaged robot's chest shattering the majority of it to bits. If anyone doubted Psyches power before this changed their minds. It's easy however to change people's minds when you can already make them think, say or do anything you damn well want. The last machine made no attempt at doing the logical thing. It did not run or change tactics. It simply kept firing till Wraith found her method of bringing it down. "Borrowing" A nearby jeep from the newly arriving military she loaded the backseat with "borrowed" explosives and drove it at full speed towards the last metal titan. Seeing her plan Spider overturned a few cars and spread his webbing out on top of them. The blanket of webbing solidified over the cars and formed a nearly perfect ramp. Placed and angled as well as one could arrange in the span of thirty seconds Wraith took the ramp at the nearly 200 miles an hour. The jeep sailed through the air undeterred by the robots attempted blast and not stopped in its path by even the machine's armor plating. Passing through its body as though it were only an illusion the jeep phased into the gears inside and when Wraith came out the other end she was no longer in a vehicle. She was however holding something from inside it. It was a small piece of metal. Forming a ring at one end and was simply straight and narrow at the other. The entire thing could fit in the palm of your hand yet was important enough to be a deciding point in someone's life. It was the pin to a grenade.  
  
Floating there on the other side of the assaulted robot she appeared more ghostlike than ever. Allowing the pin to phase through her hand and fall to the earth she slowly floated down after it. When the grenade that the pin belonged to exploded it detonated the other three hundred pounds of explosives which in turn detonated the jeep's fuel tank, which in turn detonated several fuel deposits within the machine. While no change could be seen in the appearance of the machine it stopped in its tracks and fired no more. There was a loud rumbling beneath the surface of the machine which gave those who beheld it the hilarious impression that the bot had indigestion. Then the rumbling subsided and the machine doubled over. The interior destroyed, the robot no longer had support for the top half of its body and the armor crumpled and tore as the weight of it's torso fell to the ground no longer attached to the legs. Walking closer to the fallen top half of the machine Spider stood face to face with it. It's lifeless features showed no sign of movement and he quickly assumed it was beaten. "Alright people. I think its over. Now lets see what we can do about getting our friends out from under all that junk" As soon as he said it however his spider sense screamed to life. The machine was not dead, only stunned and quickly moved to catch Spider while his back was turned. Acting out of reflex and in response to the warning from his spider-sense. Spider leaped straight up to avoid the things clutches. It's huge hand however came too suddenly and too quick. Catching him between giant armored thumb and index finger it held and began to squeeze. Spider yelled out in pain as he felt its crushing grip. Under the unrelenting pressure of its grip he noticed only two things before the world went dark. The feeling of something or several somethings cracking within his chest and The wall of blue light coming in his general direction. And though Spider never blacked out or lost consciousness in any way the world still went dark. It went dark in fact for all of the six heroes gathered there. It stayed dark for quite a while. None of them knew how long. Not even tech who had more gadgets built into his body than there are digits in the matrix. He also had a supercomputer in his mind which had more computing power than the entire rest of the galaxy combined yet he never thought to include a clock into his own design. After a while the darkness receded. And they were left in an area of white. There was no floor or walls where they were, there was no sky or ground. There was nothing for as far as the super-human eye could see or the high tech computer could scan. "Where are we?" Spider asked still clutching at his injured ribs. The machine had released him when Inferno melted its face and the void opened up around them landing them here. In the nothing. "Couldn't say cap'n" Creature answered using his own little nickname for Chase. "Don't recognize any scents or see anything I know. In fact there are no scents. I don't think there's even air here." "There isn't" Said the butler. "Fortunately however there isn't death here either. Otherwise the lack of air would be a problem for most of you." He said as they quickly spun to see what had spoken. He stood in the middle of them. None of them knew how long he had been there, or how he got there but there he was. A butler, in full uniform, looking as human and proper as any butler could ever look. "Sorry for the inconvenience but I am in need of your services. I have finished the preparations however and we are clear to proceed." The butler said and before any of the Anomalies could respond the world unfolded itself around them. The butler was gone and they were back where air moves freely and solid objects exist. This was the only observation they could make however due to the fact that they were somewhere none of them had ever been before (Or ever would be again for that matter). They were outside. On a planet. Judging by the gravity it was the same size as earth. Judging by the fact that they hadn't asphyxiated the air was breathable. Other judgements however they could not yet make. "Where are we now?" Spider asked. "Psyche, Tech scan around and see what you can find." They did as they were asked but they found nothing. Searching the area they found no hints as to where they were except the terrain itself. "Wait! I got something" Came Tech's sudden response. Apparently he had found something other than the desolate wasteland on the edge of a lush forest in which the team had found themselves. There was almost no transition whatsoever between the terrain types and it seemed as though the forces that created it had done so while under the influence of heavy drugs or in some sort of half conscious state. That is of course assuming that some sentient entity had created the land instead of mere chaotic events. In any case Tech had found something new. There were machines in action nearby. Vehicles to be specific, and the action they were partaking in was combat. And more importantly was the number of them. There were thousands of them and each of them seemed determined to kill each other one of them. The battle swept across the land with the speed of a tidal wave. The scrambling jets whipping through the air and blasting at each other with their assorted weaponry. The jets were not human though and the weapons were impossible to identify. Immediately the anomalies sprung into action. They acted without hesitation and without realizing that all their fatigue and injuries had vanished at some point before they arrived in the new place. As the tide of alien fighter planes swept over them they joined the battle. However the anomalies did not intend to kill anyone. Instead they sought to immobilize the fighters to stop them from fighting. Despite their lack of knowledge of the situation the chaos of the battle was such that they immediately acted to stop it. Had someone been watching them they would have been lost from view in the chaos. Once they were closer the variety of combatants became clear and it turned out that not all of the flying fighters were vehicles. Some were living, bug-like creatures that sprayed some kind of acid as their primary method of attack. Others were winged humanoid aliens that used some kind of energy spears that launched bolts to attack things. The Anomalies fought valiantly and bravely and it took hours before they began to accomplish anything significant. Andrew leaped from vehicle to vehicle shifting from one vicious form to another ripping and clawing the engines and wings of vehicles and bringing them to the ground. He ripped the entire roof from one jet and used the metal to tie up one of the winged men, leaping towards another target he was caught by surprise by a sudden burst of energy bolts. The force of the attack knocked him from the air and pinned him to the ground. Slamming into him the green bolts came from all sides burning his flesh and bruising his bones. Pinned down he could not avoid the continuous bombardment of energy and could barely shift his flesh to repair the damage caused by the attack. It could have perhaps been the end of him had he not had an entire team of super-powered allies there aiding him. Of the team members that could have saved him it was Spider that actually did. As the nearest jet swept over firing its weapons at Creature Spider landed on its roof. Acting without hesitation he drove his fists through the wind-shield of the vehicle, opened his hands, bent his wrists and filled the cockpit with several layers of webbing. Anything and everything inside the small deadly vehicle was instantly immobilized and the ship lost control and plummeted to the ground. Leaping from the vehicle before it began its downward spiral Spider twisted in the air and caught the side of another attacker with one hand. Using his superhuman ability to cling to things he held on as the plane whipped by. Reaching around behind it Spider took hold of one wing of the jet and pulled. With some considerable effort he managed to remove the wing from the rest of the plane and drive one hand most of the way through the hull of the plane itself (One happened as a result of the other considering those pesky laws of physics existed in this new world along with air and gravity and friction). As the plane lost all control and spun madly through the air Spider clung to it's side and waited. With the severed wing in one hand he watched straight ahead as the horizon flipped over and over with dizzying speed. A split second before the jet's momentum had it crashing into the ground spider leapt. Acting with the speed and timing that only his considerable ability awarded him he sailed through the air, twisted in the air and hurled the severed wing that he still held directly at another oncoming jet. The large chunk of metal collided with the new jet and wedged its way halfway through the jet. In an instant the machine's engine died and it too plummeted to earth. Turning their attention away from the injured Creature his attackers began to focus on Spider. Whipping by at great speeds they swarmed around him firing at him constantly. Using all his agility he managed to avoid the blasts even in the small space between them. Twisting, flipping and diving about in mid air he broke free of their attempts to block him in by slipping through a gap in their attacks that would be too small for even a small child to fit through. Using other passing jets and flying machines as anchors for his webbing he swung away to the nearby forest where he would have an easier time using his webbing to move around. The trees provided him with anchors for his webbing, easy shelter and cover from the planes and still allowed him room to maneuver yet hindered the planes' efforts to do the same. All this considered it was the perfect place for Spider to want to fight. When you consider that Inferno was already there waiting to spring his little trap on the hapless flying machines it was even better than perfect. Mere seconds after he swung into the cover of the trees at least twenty of the jets came screaming in after him. Losing sight of Spider they saw Inferno instead. Burning through their midst he literally drained the energy from each of the vehicles as he passed. Passing through their hulls under Inferno's manipulation the combined energies trailed after him and merged with the blue energy that surrounded him. Lifeless and drained of energy the vehicles fell from the sky and crashed into the earth and trees in their paths. Pausing a moment to catch his breath Spider dropped down to examine one of the crashed ships. Finding a hatch at the top of one and sensing no danger he grabbed and pulled. Whatever the metal was it wasn't anything Spider had ever before encountered but it still came loose under the strain of his pull. Inside he found two humanoid beings. In fact they were very close to human in appearance. One of them looked to be completely human with the exception of his strange styled clothing. The other however was decidedly not. It lay unconscious in its seat, a small but concerning gash on its forehead. It's blue blood poured freely from the wound staining the alien's blue skin a slightly darker color. Checking for a pulse in the regular human places Spider found one. It seemed strong and steady so he decided not to worry. Creating a makeshift bandage out of webbing he stopped the flow of blood from his attackers head, left the jet and rejoined the battle. When he re-emerged from the forest the battle had changed drastically. No longer were the assortment of random aliens attacking each other with such zeal. Instead they had banded together against the common threat the Anomalies seemed to pose. However, despite the worsened odds the Anomalies were doing fine. They had seemed to gotten used to the enemies style and had a feel for fighting them. Wraith would phase through passing ships and drag their pilots out the other side. Once there she would drop lower to a relatively safe distance and drop them. Unarmed and mildly injured they never had much fight in them. Creature would simply go berserk and rip passing ships apart. Nail, Tooth and claws flying he removed the engines and wings of ships and broke personal weapons to bits. No longer in the relative safety of their vehicles and terrified by his ferocious appearance they either ran for their lives or fainted outright. Tech who had commandeered one of the passing ships and improved it with a few of his own designs simply shot down and incapacitated every enemy he saw. His superior ship and his cybernetically enhanced reflexes made him far superior to any other pilot involved in the conflict. Spider had renewed his original strategy. He either filled the interior of enemy ships with webbing or used individual web-lines or nets to slam ships into each other. The best strategy however seemed to be the one which inferno had adopted. He simply flew among the ships and sucked the energy right out of them dropping to the earth lifeless and immobile. Even those without ships weren't immune to his assaults. He drained their weapons of energy and left them to either give up or attempt to fight without weapons. In a matter of moments the anomalies had reduced nearly half the ships that were present into nothing more than lifeless piles of fancy components. Either they were smashed or torn beyond repair or they were drained of energy down to the cores. It was at this point that Psyches strategy became apparent. Until then Callahan had lain low and remained almost completely unnoticed. Now however he won the battle. All the while that others had battled he had been reaching out telepathically. Using his mind to target the minds of every other individual within a hundred miles (with the exception of the other Anomalies) he stopped them from fighting all at once. In one large telepathic burst he changed their minds. No longer did they see any reason to fight, nor did they remember ever having a reason. Stopped in their tracks by his manipulation they paused. After a few minutes they powered down their weapons, rejoined those they had considered their allies, chose a direction and simply left. Walking jetting or winging away the entire horde of aliens were gone in less than an hour. Even those that had been injured or rendered unconscious had either awoken and left or had been carried by one of their species. Rejoining each other to try to gain some sense of what was going on the Anomalies gathered together no more than ten feet from where they joined the battle in the first place. Again surveying the strange land they had found themselves in their opinion had changed. Now it was treacherous. There were obviously enemies about. And plenty to have to deal with no doubt before they would find out how to get home. However while none of them liked the situation they had grown accustomed to unusual situations. For the most part they were prepared to deal with this strange land as best as they could. "So anyone got any idea what's going on here?" Chris said as he landed and let the burning energy that surrounded him to again recede into his body. "Not a clue. But I did recognize some of those ships. They were Kree" Spider said after allowing his words to sink in he continued. "And I think that there were some badoon involved too". "That doesn't make any sense" Tech replied "not only are those species' fictional but according to those file from Avengers mansion and from the fantastic four the Kree haven't had a battalion this size in fifty years. And the badoon were never a match for them in any kind of battle." "I know. It doesn't make sense. They're comic book characters but I recognized them all the same." Spider argued. "No they're Kree... and badoon and you're right they shouldn't be fighting. Not only are they not real but they're ships were years apart." Psyche said. "So... time travel then? Aw great doesn't that just beat all." Chris cut in. While none of them knew that it actually was time travel they were dealing with none of them argued his point. Nobody wanted to deal with time travel. It was confusing, annoying and dangerous. "I don't think that time is our only problem." Callahan said "nobody knew where they were or how they got here. When I touched their minds I looked for info and found next to nothing. Except that the land is rich with minerals of all kinds and is as lush and inhabitable as any planet anyone has ever seen." "Which means that they all wanted it for themselves and were immediately willing to kill for it." Wraith said with more than a trace of bitterness to her voice. Spider who had been until now paying close attention to the conversation stopped. Something wasn't right. He felt an odd tingling in the back of his head and while such a tingling usually meant danger and instinctually told him how to avoid it and where it was coming from this time was different. His Spider sense didn't seem to be warning him of danger. It had no information for him of direction or severity. Instead it just seemed confused. Like something was very different all of a sudden but he didn't know what. Without saying anything to alarm his friends he casually looked around. Scanning the area for wherever the tingling was coming from he found nothing. Deciding that sure or not he should tell the others of the possible danger he looked back towards the group. When he did however the sight that greeted him was not what he expected. Newcomers were standing in their midst.  
  
There were three of them. Each appeared more or less human but Chase's Spider sense gave him the distinct impression that they were far more than they appeared. Unsure of how to react he took a step back and tensed a bit. Before he could say anything however his spider sense flared to life. The danger however was not originating from the new three. Instead it came from Chris. Startled by the sudden appearance of the three strangers he summoned his energies as fast as he could. Not thinking clearly the sudden explosion of energy flared out in all directions. His teammates however were just far enough away from him to not get burned and with the exception of Spider who flipped away from the flare none of them were harmed. One of the three strangers however was not so lucky. The first explosion of energy poured over him suddenly and without warning. Spider who saw it all was worried that the man would be killed or grievously injured. Instead however the man seemed no more bothered by it than he would if you pointed a flashlight into his eyes. The energy splashed off his body like water off of a tank. The mans only response was "What the hell?" Without a word the Anomalies spread out and prepared again to fight. The three strangers seemed taken aback by their aggression although they naturally came together to defend themselves. For the first time Spider was able to get a good look at the strangers. There were two males and one female. All appeared human at fist but their appearances changed drastically. The larger male was a white man. He dressed in a casual looking t-shirt and jeans and in a way looked like a typical lumberjack. He was big, bigger than anyone most people would ever see, his build was wide and muscular and even had they not seen Chris's unintentional attack splash off of him they would have expected super strength and invulnerability. Such expectations would have been strengthened when the man Grew nearly a foot taller and transmuted his own flesh into some kind of metal. His shiny metal flesh appeared to be very dense and very dangerous. And this opinion was worsened when two very powerful looking cannons sprouted out from his shoulder and hummed to life. The smaller man was dark skinned and scrawny. Judging by his first appearance the Anomalies would have simply laughed at the prospect of fighting him. His appearance also changed however. His skin seemed to transform into some strange new substance that looked to be a combination of bone and rock. It spread out over his body and formed plates of seemingly natural armor all over his body. His back looked to be especially protected and gave him the appearance of an armadillo or possibly an anklyosaur. From his elbows, knees and shoulders and ridging around the plating on his back protruded long sharp spikes and his short black curly hair was replaced with sharp quill-like darts. Altogether his transformation made him seem like a cross between a man a porcupine and an armadillo and when he hunched down in an apparent self defense stance his curled back gave him the appearance that he could tuck in his legs and roll away. The last of the three appeared the most human. Nothing changed about her appearance except her eyes. There was lightning in her eyes. As Spider looked her over he couldn't help but feel attracted to her despite the very possible danger she posed. She was nearly a full foot shorter than he but stood very confident and intimidating. Her curly brown hair hung down over her shoulders and framed her face perfectly and her wide stance gave her the appearance of great confidence in herself despite the surprise of being attacked. Despite the fact that there were no physically apparent powers she looked formidable. She looked even more so when winds arose and carried her up into the air. Floating there no more than two feet above the ground she called out to Inferno "What's going on here Chris?" Startled by the use of his real name Inferno said nothing. Through his posture however one could tell that he was confused and that confusion turned to anger. With a sudden ferocity that would catch most people by surprise he shot one hand forward and released a solid beam of energy that would reduce a house to nothing more than a molten puddle. Stepping in front of the beam the larger of the three stepped into the path of the beam shielding the strange woman from the danger it posed. Again his energy attack splashed off his flesh without doing him any harm or even looking like it caused him discomfort. Taking Inferno's actions as the order to attack the other Anomalies moved in. All but Spider who still stood silent. Waiting attentively he attempted to sense any danger that the three strangers posed. There was none. While he sensed the potential for a great deal of danger he sensed no immediate intent to harm. However he did not know if the lack of danger was due to the fact that they were not enemies or the fact that their attention was turned to the other Anomalies rather than himself. Waiting back he honestly didn't know what to do. Creature chose the small Porcudillo looking guy. Leaping forward at him in the form of some cross between a Tiger and a gorilla. Before he managed to land his attack however the spiky stranger curled into a ball and rolled between his legs. Once on the other side the stranger bounced up and uncurled letting a flurry of darts and quills spray from his body and stab painfully into Creature's back. Letting out a yell of pain Creature healed the wounds, landed hard and turned to attack again. This time his pounce caught the small spiky man in the air and together they tumbled to the ground rolling about with a ferocious exchange of claws, teeth, quills and spikes.  
  
Nobody from either side could give them aid due to the deadly barrage of sharp claws and high impacts passing back and forth between them. Turning his attention to the others Spider watched as Tech attempted an attack sweep on the large metal giant that Inferno had assaulted before. Firing all the extremely advanced weapons he had at his disposal directly into his armored hide he let loose countless missiles and energy bolts as he passed over. Making no attempt at dodging the attacks he simply turned and watched as Tech's modified Kree jet passed overhead. The turrets on his shoulders swivelled as he turned his head to constantly target whatever the metal man looked at. Currently the turrets were targeting the ship that Tech piloted. Humming to life the twin cannons blasted two large green energy bolts each the size of a couch. As Tech maneuvered to dodge the blasts he was surprised to find that the blasts turned to follow him. Banking right as hard as he could he turned at the last moment to avoid the blasts. Hoping to turn too sharply for the bolts to follow he nearly managed to do so. The blasts turned to follow but could not manage the turn that his ship did. Instead they passed by his ship closely and one of the two skinned the force shield that encased his vehicle. Apparently destabilized by his shields the blast detonated sending Tech's jet spinning out of control and burning out all of it's systems. The vehicle crashed to he ground with Tech nearly getting caught within it. Just before it crashed however he blew one door open and dove out. Twisting in midair he turned to aim his own personal weapons at the tank like person that shot him down. Each hand wielding a very formidable, very high tech energy pistol Tech let loose twin streams of superheated bolts of plasma. The streams were aimed well and caught the metal stranger squarely in the chest again however the blasts did no damage. The metal man turned his turrets again this time to target Tech himself. Charging up a seemingly smaller pair of blasts he likely would have taken Tech down had Psyche not chosen that moment to get involved. Charging towards the metal giant he focused all the telekinetic force he could muster into his fists. Bringing his fists back he slammed them directly into his opponent's temple. The ringing sound that resulted from the impact was deafening and the impact itself contained nearly as much sheer force as a nuclear blast. Instead of vaporizing the giant however, the punch merely staggered him. Taking a few steps to the side to regain his balance the metal skinned man turned to see what hit him. Seeing Psyche standing in his previous position he balled up his fists and started walking towards him. "So that's how you wanna do this eh Cal?" the armored man muttered as he swung his own fists in Psyches direction. Not allowing his opponent's words to distract him Callahan ducked under the punch and put his fist again into the metal man's face. This time however the result was somewhat different. This time Psyche did not catch his target off guard and only resulted a slight turn of the metal man's head. Turning his attention downward he brought his hands up and slammed his fists down onto Psyches shoulders. Shielding himself with all of his considerable telekinetic force Psyche was still pained by the assault. Deciding that it was no longer worth the risk to go shot for shot with this oversized tin- man he backed off to gather his wits and come up with a strategy. Inferno who had been drawn into combat with the female stranger had been given no such opportunity however. Taking to the air she had closed the distance between herself and Chris and the two of them maneuvered around each other in the air all the while releasing blasts at each other. The attacks that the woman used were of various types. The first assaults were bolts of lightning as Chase had expected from the electricity in her eyes. However when she started throwing fireballs and rocks that she seemed to make out of thin air both Inferno and Spider were surprised. And each time Inferno tried to return fire his bolts were either easily dodged or seemed to part before they hit her. It seemed that she was removing the electrical and fiery parts of his energy blasts and using them as ammunition for her own attacks. She was an elemental Chase concluded. And a powerful one at that. Able to not only control weather and the elements themselves but able to generate it as well. The only time that the two opponents separated from each other was when Wraith decided to give Inferno aid. Flying towards the mysterious elemental woman she knew that her opponent saw her coming but hoped that she wasn't expecting her to phase. Diving right through the other woman's body Wraith turned around on the other side and tried to strike her on the head with a rock she had carried up with her. When the rock turned to dust in her hand however and a small sphere of fire enclosed around her head and burnt up her air she was the one who was taken by surprise. After only a few seconds Wraith lost consciousness and fell to the ground. Before she hit bottom however she was caught in a small cyclone which lowered her to the ground relatively gently. Rendered unconscious Wraith instinctively became invisible and was lost for the rest of the fight. Using this as an opportunity to strike Inferno blasted her with enough force to render her unconscious. Having regained a bit of composure he was no longer using deadly force and would continue to pull his punches till he knew how much this strange woman could take. Also learning from his mistakes he didn't use the same type of energy attack as before. Instead he put only concussive force into his blast rather than his usual combination of concussive force, electricity and heat. Still the blast did not hit its target however. The elemental had created a shield for herself this time instead of trying to manipulate the blast itself she blocked it. Creating a disc of extremely fast cyclonic winds and sending bolts of electricity and fist sized rocks to whirl about within it she moved the disc to the path of Inferno's blast. The disc easily blocked his blast and he was struck several times by lightning before he realized what happened. Stunned rather than injured by the bolts Inferno had no time to react when a large tornado formed around him. Immobilized by the cyclone and still stunned by the lightning that had struck him Inferno could not react in time when the elemental entered the cyclone with him. Holding her hands out in front of her she began to spray water at him. Pouring forth from her palms the burst of freezing cold water caught inferno by surprise. He was prepared to catch whatever energy she threw at him and absorb it but did not think to prepare in case she tried to extinguish him. The stream of water was about two feet thick and struck him with enough pressure to pierce a tank's armor plating. This was almost the perfect amount of water proving that she in fact did know Chris and his powers. Before he had a chance to increase his burn to evaporate the water it smothered his energy and decreased in pressure drastically as he returned to the form of a normal human being. Again shocked by the cold water finally soaking his skin he fell from the sky and was caught by the side of the twisting whirlwind that had trapped him earlier. Spinning and tossing him violently he was caught in the fierce winds for a few minutes before being thrown again to the ground. Tech who had seen Inferno's predicament turned his attention to catching his falling friend. Jets spurting forth from the soles of his feet he rocketed over to Chris's estimated landing point and held out his arms to catch him. Doing just that he gently placed Chris on the ground and decided to do what he could against the Elemental that defeated him. Un-slinging the plasma rifle he kept on his back he turned to aim at the woman. Before he could take a shot however the ground beneath him shifted. The previously solid ground became thin and yielded to his weight. Tech sunk up to his waist before he realized what was happening. No longer attempting to aim he focused more on freeing himself from the quicksand that had appeared beneath him. Using his boot jets to propel himself didn't seem enough however and he was forced to again aim his weapon. This time however he used the grapple hook that he had built into the device and used it and a nearby boulder to pull himself free of the ground beneath him. Unhitching the cord from his rifle he got to his feet and turned to see where the elemental had gone. Not seeing her in the sky he turned to find her standing over Chris's unconscious form. With her back turned to him she raised her arms and brought her palms together above her head. As she did so the ground around Chris moved to obey. The stone and dirt raised itself up and encased Chris's body. Above the dirt plants grew and roots and weeds seemed to tie him down. Impressed by her ability Tech stood for a second stunned at the display before again bringing his rifle to bear. Stepping up to just behind her he aimed the rifle directly at her back. "Neat trick" he said. "Now undo it and tell your two friends to back off." Tech told her. Without making a move the woman responded. "You should have just taken the shot Jason" She said as a bolt of lightning nearly five feet thick struck him squarely from above. The sky had darkened and released it's bolt and then returned to normal too quickly for Tech to have anticipated it. Instead he was caught off guard when the bolt hit him. His enhanced strength and the protection his cybernetics provided him prevented him from being vaporized as a normal being would have been but the force of the assault still took the fight out of him. He fell to the ground with all his systems burnt out and many of his interior components completely fried. Judging the damage instinctively Jason estimated that his entire cybernetic structure was totaled and that it would take nearly an hour before he could be back in action. Having defeated three of her opponents she turned to look at Spider. As she watched him silently he tensed in anticipation of her attack. When none came he was surprised. Still not knowing what to do he turned his attention away from her to see what had gone with the rest of the fight. Paying close attention to his spider sense incase she decided she was no longer content to watch him he looked to the others. Creature had finally managed to pin his opponent and shifted his head into that of a large ram. Brining his head back he prepared to slam it down into the spiky enemies face when Spider pulled him off. Finally having decided upon his course of action he crossed the distance between himself and Creature's duel with the stranger and dove over him. Grabbing him by the horns as he passed overhead Spider flipped over and yanked Creature off of his opponent. Throwing him onto his back he looked directly into Creature's stunned face and spoke very clearly to him. "That's enough Andrew we still don't know who these people are. There's no reason to be fighting them yet." Before he could gage Creature's reaction however his spider sense flared again to life. The spiky man had regained his feet and attempted to hit Spider in the back of the head with one Plated, spiky fist. Warned by his spider sense, Spider easily ducked under the attack and brought one foot around to sweep the assailant's feet out from beneath him. As the spiky attacker landed on his back he was struck hard in the face by Spider's fist. Caught by surprise and hit hard the man was rendered unconscious. Before Spider could say anything else however he was forced to dive to the side to avoid a quick series of bolts of lightning. As clouds formed above him and more bolts struck all around his scrambling body Cyclones also formed and swept around him. In a matter of seconds Spider found himself actually hard-pressed to dodge all that was striking at him. It was due to this that he realized to late where he was going. The lightning bolts and cyclones had herded him right to where Psyche and the armored one had continued their duel. Back-flipping right into their midst he had to duck under the metal one's fists as he swung at him repeatedly. Forced in close with the metal giant he dodged his fists and waited for an opportunity to clear his striking distance. The opportunity came when the elemental tried another bolt. Coming from above the bolt was large and powerful enough to split tree-trunks and would have made Spider far more than uncomfortable. Leaping out of the lightning's path it struck the metal man harmlessly. It did however blind him for a split-second which was enough for Psyche to renew his attack. Putting all of his effort and force into his punch he caught the man squarely in the jaw with an uppercut. The shockwave of air that resulted from the hit exploded outward and could be seen by the rain that was thrown by it. Creating a sudden vacuum of air around them there was another deafening blast as the air rushed to fill in the space. Between the lightning bolt, the implosion and the hit itself the armored man was actually knocked from his feet landing for the first time squarely on his back. Rubbing his jaw to attempt to alleviate the slight aching the armored man rose to his feet slowly and looked to punish Psyche for the assault. Before he could however he was struck by another attack. This time however Psyche had decided to no longer attempt physical force and blasted the man telepathically. The psi- blast was powerful enough to turn your average telepath into a vegetable but did nothing of the sort to the armored man in front of him. Instead it simply caused the man excruciating pain. Clutching at his temples and falling to his knees the man screamed as the wave of pain passed over him. Standing stunned by the fact that the man wasn't even unconscious Psyche didn't know what to do. He scanned the man telepathically but found his efforts blocked by some sort of powerful telepathic barrier. Annoyed at this he tried again this time more carefully. Again he found no way to gain entry to the man's mind. As the metal giant again got to his feet Psyche took to the air determined to force his way past this barrier. The elemental woman had seemed to lose sight of Spider in his desperate scramble to dodge her attacks and losing sight of him she dispersed the clouds for more light. No longer assaulted the weather that the clouds had caused Spider stopped and looked about for the woman that had created them. Seeing her a hundred yards to his left he began a series of jumps to cross the distance between them. As she turned around looking for him she saw him leaping toward her. Acting out of self defense she created another shield disc this time nearly ten meters wide directly in his path. Shooting a web- line to the earth he yanked on it hard to pull himself out of the path he was on. Narrowly avoiding being severely battered and burned by the weather disc he landed a dozen yards away from her and leapt again as she launched a pillar of fire at him. Flipping over the burning beam and spraying a stream of web fluid at her from both web-shooters he had encased her in a cocoon of webbing before she could raise a hand to stop him. "Now hang on a second lady" He said as he landed and attempted to walk towards her. He was stopped in his tracks however by the ground itself. Giant hands of stone burst forth from the earth beneath him and reached to capture him. Leaping to avoid being crushed Spider managed to slip through the giant hands's grasp by diving between the second and third finger of the left one just before the fingers laced together. Forced away from her again his words of peace were lost among the sounds of two giant stone hands colliding and crushing into each other. Looking over in her direction he watched a large sharp jagged stone burst forth from the ground and cut her free of his webbing. attempting to again come closer to her he jumped again this time with his hands raised above him in what he hoped looked like a gesture of surrender. When he landed right next her his spider sense warned him too late for him to avoid her next assault. The ground on which he landed wasn't solid. It was quicksand and with nothing for him to attach a web- line to, to change his path he couldn't avoid landing right in it. Splashing right in and immediately sinking up to his armpits the ground solidified around him effectively trapping him in several meters of rock. With his hands still raised above him Spider found himself suddenly looking up at the woman who had trapped him. Despite the impending danger she posed he couldn't help but admire her looks. Nor could he help but make a joke. "Well if I'm about to die at least I get a good view." He said gesturing towards the clear view he had of the interior of her skirt. Looking down to see what he was talking about woman looked back up suddenly embarrassed and took several steps back. With a look of mock anger on her face she replied. "I should kill you for that you pig" she said with hints of a smile spreading across her face. "But you won't" Spider stated confidently. "Because... I'm your friend?" he guessed. For effect he triggered the mental command that made his costume recede and his gauntlets turn back to his watch. Now looking like a very misplaced average human being up to his armpits in solid rock he gazed into the other's eyes. The woman was silent for a moment before she spoke again. "You don't know me?" She asked looking genuinely concerned. "Nope, afraid not babe" Chase replied. "But judging from what I've seen so far I think I'd like to." he added with a smile. "What's your name?" he asked. The answer to his question came from behind him instead of from the woman herself. "Her name is Chantal... or Sage when she's on the job." Came Callahan's voice from behind him. Craning his neck to look around at Cal he saw his friend walking up behind him with the metal man he had been battling alongside him. "And this is Nariman, also known as Tank. And the best part is; they're Anomalies." Callahan continued. "What?" Was Chase's only response. "What are you talking about?" "Of course we're anomalies. You really don't remember? Cal what's wrong with him?"  
  
Chantal asked. "Don't look at me. I don't remember you either. I just borrowed the memories from tank here." Callahan answered. "I'm pretty sure you're telling the truth though." he added. "Those mental barriers in your heads are pretty hard to fake. And I think I'd know my own work.". "Um guys?" Chase said. "You don't remember us either? What the hell is going on?" Chantal asked. "Um guys?" Chase tried again. "I don't know but I want to know as bad as you do." Cal responded. "GUYS!!" Chase shouted. "WHAT?" they responded in unison. "Two things: first, could you get me out of the ground please. And second, maybe that guy'll have some insight on it." he said gesturing off to the left. As they looked to where he gestured they again saw the old man that had spoken to them in the place before they came here. "You again?" the three of them asked again in unison. "Yes. Me" the butler said. As Chantal spoke she walked over to the butler lightning flashing in her eyes and the sky growing dark. "What did you do to them?"She yelled. "Aw nuts" Came Chase's voice from somewhere behind them, still trapped in the ground. Instinctively both Psyche and Tank moved to back Chantal's actions. As they prepared for the possible combat the butler spoke again. "Now, now Sage there is no need to be angry with me it's an honest mistake. I forgot their reinforcements you see and brought what I thought was the rest of their team to join them. However it seems I pulled them from a different dimension than I originally thought and that they are the original team in its entirety."he said. "So we actually don't know them?" Chantal asked seeming more than a little confused. "Precisely however there's nothing to be done about it now. Once you're here, you're here there's no going back."He answered. "What is it you want us to do here?" Psyche asked. "Ah I forgot to tell you that as well? Where has my mind been?" the butler muttered. "Alright well I'll explain it as best as I can." he said "the world you are in now is part of a dimension that should not exist. It is composed entirely of components that accidentally crossed into another dimension... or tried to but ended up here. It isn't a place. It shouldn't be and we want you to fix it. This place is wrong. There are individuals from all of infinite stranded here and you are needed to make it right." he said. "What the hell do you mean make it right?" Psyche asked. But he received no answer. Instead of responding the butler turned and walked away. As he walked he seemed to simply fade out of existence. "Well then" Psyche muttered. "Guys!" Chase yelled out. And as their attention snapped back to him he spoke again. "Remember which I said was first?" he said gesturing to the ground that held him. "Oh sorry" Chantal said absently. As she did so she waved one hand and the ground agin shifted to quicksand. Before Spider sank any further he grabbed the hand that Tank offered him and was pulled free. Again standing on solid, dry ground he looked around. "So what now?" He asked. "I think we should wake the others up." Tank offered. "Too late" Came Andrew from behind them. He walked over to them accompanied by the third stranger, Tech and Inferno. "I got them" he said. "Well except Sarah...I couldn't find her" He added. "I'm here" Sarah said from beside him as she again became visible. Chase guessed that she was trying to startle them but it didn't seem to work. Nobody reacted to her sudden appearance except to acknowledge her presence. "So did everyone hear that butler guy?" Chase asked. And as they nodded he went on. "So what do we do then?" he asked and there was silence. "Well I don't know what we're supposed to do to make it right but I could do something about the strangers thing." Callahan offered. "What's that?" Chase asked. "Well I could read through their memories and supplant ours with them." Cal answered. "It would give us knowledge of who they are and what they can do. "It'd make them part of the team so we can work well together." "Do it then" Chantal said. "We cant have you boys not knowing me" She added with a smile. Hearing her response Callahan looked to Chase. Chase in turn looked to the faces of each of the other Anomalies both from his dimension and the other one. As he looked at each of them they nodded in answer to his unspoken question. They each agreed to share their memories with their friends. Seeing their response Chase turned to Cal and answered him. "Do it." he said. "Alright. Everyone might wanna sit down for this." And as they did so he reached into their minds.  
  
Chapter 2: It turned out to be a good idea that they sat down. The sudden rush of new memories was an experience that cant be compared. Their minds nearly overloaded with the imprinting of senses and thoughts they had in their past coming back to them. The whole process took no more than a minute but in their minds it spanned 5 years. Afterwards it was the third stranger who spoke first. "Wow" he said simply. And the others seemed to agree. They remembered. His name was Ameer but he also went by Frenzy. His powers were as obvious as the fact that he was real. They knew he was able to curl into a ball and propel himself by rolling around in a similar fashion to the video game character Sonic: the Hedgehog. They also knew that he could grow all sorts of shapes and objects from his body each made out of the strange bone-like substance that his armor plating was made of. He and the other two newcomers were now as well known as anyone else in the group. They could remember past adventures with each other as well as social gatherings. They were the closest of friends despite the fact that moments ago they were strangers. And moments before that they were enemies. "Yeah... Wow" Chris responded. "But what now?" "Well I don't know about you guys..." Andrew cut in. "But I'm starving here." And as they all laughed and generally agreed they rose to their feet and began to make their way to the nearby forest. "Alright same deal as always right? Creature you find it, Someone kills it, Tech cleans it and Inferno cooks it right?" and as they all agreed they entered the forest and began their hunt. Given their abilities and the strategy they used they had managed to find food quite easily. The forest was well inhabited by a wide variety of creatures and they took five of them captive before killing anyone. Before they were willing to kill and eat it they had Psyche and Tech scan it. Tech to make sure it was edible and Psyche to make sure it wasn't sentient. By the time they returned from their hunt to the outskirts of the forest Chantal had gathered a wide variety of fruits and vegetables in large amounts and had a campfire started. Also she had managed to grow some shelter for them in case they were going to camp out for the night. The shelters she made were trees that, under her manipulation, grew together to form a large wooden cabin with solid walls and a door at either end. It even had a chimney that grew out of the top of the trees. The natural walls were sturdy and the canopy of leaves above the "chimney" would keep the rain out if it rained. The space inside was enough to easily accommodate the nine of them and she shifted the dirt floor around bringing up a marble deposit from beneath the ground. Using her abilities of fire and water she had arranged the marble quite nicely and in no more than twenty minutes she had created a home fit for the richest of fairy tale inhabitants. When the others returned they entered the tree-house and marveled at her creation. As they ate and drank in the shelter of the cabin she had made they talked about all the memories they had, both recent and old. As it turned out they did indeed spend the night there. When they awoke however it was not in the same place. And it was not in a pleasant manner. Each sleeping in their respective corners of the shelter sage had built. They had not thought of the dangers that might plague them in the night. Thus they did not bother keeping one awake to stand guard. Creeping in through the darkness unhindered by the heavy oaken door which was their only protection the things came. And there were lots of them. Quietly moving into the shelter they crept towards their unsuspecting prey. And if their prey had been average people or at least slightly less exceptional than the Anomalies then they likely would have taken them without a fight. Instead they ran afoul of two very dangerous people who are very easy to wake. And those two being awakened led to others being awakened. Which led to a battle between some very cranky super- powered individuals who had been rudely awakened by attackers and the attackers themselves. The fact that they were resisted probably startled the attackers more than it did the Anomalies. Because when you are invisible and as well trained in stealth and covert operations as an entire galactic empire can afford. They were code-named ghosts. Years of training and genetic engineering had given them relative psychic prowess. Their weapons were state of the art for their time. Making them nearly 500 years ahead of modern weapons on earth today. Their sleek black armor gave them the appearance of motorcyclists but no bike helmet would provide as much protection as these did. Armed with their precision rifles and an assortment of other gadgets and gear they snuck in and intended to capture everything they encountered inside. Alive if possible but their lives aren't as important as those of the ghosts. They were good and they intended to accomplish their mission no matter what. Despite their stealthy movements and their psychically generated invisibility they weren't quiet enough. The slightest clink of their gear shifting, the tiny creak made by opening the door. The barely audible foot steps and the slight sound of breathing. All this was enough to cause creature to stir. Subconsciously shifting to thicken his skin and harden his muscles he slowly opened one eye. Shifting his eye to that of some nocturnal animal he instantly adjusted to the dark and slowly scanned the room. He saw nothing. Dismissing the barely noticeable sounds as figments of his imagination or tricks of the wind he again closed his eye. He would have ignored any other tiny sounds he heard as well had he not caught a scent just before he fell asleep. Snapping awake he again focused his attention around the room. Shifting his eyes ears and nose he focused trying to locate the source of the scent he could barely detect. Still he saw nothing but this time he heard it. His sudden shift in movement had startled something. It let out the sound of a shortened breath and slowly inched away. Even with his incredible senses he barely heard these sounds. But he heard them nonetheless and by the sounds of them the intruder was no more than five feet away standing over Creatures position. Not knowing what to do he waited. Looking about the room at the sleeping form of the other eight Anomalies he saw no other signs of trouble. Or of anyone else being around. Scanning the sleeping forms he looked for two in particular. One was Wraith. Who conceivably could be the invisible person sneaking about at night. This occurred to Creature as possible but he could not imagine why she would do it. Finding her sleeping in the far corner of the room his suspicions deepened. Before he could locate the other he looked for he heard something new however. It was a click. The sound was faint but distinct and it was a sound that Creature had heard more times than he could count within the last five years of his life. It was the sound of a gun being readied for use. It was the sound of danger. Shifting his body to prepare for the battle he knew was coming he was about to leap to his feet and roar out his rage at the attackers but someone else did it for him. Startled awake by the sudden tingling in the back of his head Chase awoke. Acting before he could think he rolled to the side and sprung off one hand landing gracefully on his feet. "What the hell?!?" he yelled out as a small dart imbedded itself in the ground where he had lain. Creature saw the dart but could not completely pinpoint where it had come from. As near as he could tell it became visible no more than five feet or so away from where Spider had been sleeping. He watched as Chase quickly allowed his costume to spread over his features. He tensed again and flipped up into the air as a dozen new darts shot out from a dozen new places in the room. Twisting and flipping in the air he was untouched by the darts and unaffected by whatever harmful effects they intended to cause. Watching frantically Creature noticed the last dart shoot out from a few feet to his left. Acting entirely on a guess he launched himself in the direction that it came from. There was a startled yelp as he collided with something hard and metallic and the sound of muffled cursing as he and his invisible prey toppled to the ground. Landing heavily on top of the intruder he reached up and grabbed at where he assumed it's head would be. Still seeing nothing he felt nothing in the path of his hand till it glanced off of a smooth metal surface that had no image to match it. Reacting quickly he clutched at the metal surface and, gaining a grip he pulled it back a few inches and slammed it hard into the smooth marble floor of the shelter. The thing was alive. It resisted his push but it's strength was no match for Creatures. Slamming the invisible assailants head into the ground a couple more times each harder than the last he felt the intruders muscles go limp and its actions cease. Letting go of it and stepping away the unconscious intruder suddenly shifted into focus. Suddenly visible Creature was able to get a good look at it before he was attacked again. There was an odd sense of familiarity to the attacker with its black metal armor and its high tech weapons. Before he could match the man with anyone in his memory however Creature was struck in the back by several dozen darts. Yelling out in pain he fell to his knees temporarily disoriented by the drugs contained within the darts. Shifting his body to force the poison out he began to recover from the drugs when he was struck with a dozen more. His focus began to burr as he turned to see what was happening. The last thing he saw before another six darts struck him in the chest and he lost consciousness was Spider flying through the room and kicking something hard with both feet. It would have appeared that he was just pretending to fight had not the phantom that he struck slowed the Spider in his path. And had not the invisible assailant collided heavily with the far wall of their shelter sending a network of cracks shooting up and down the wall. Falling to his side his vision went dark as he heard the sounds of strong winds whipping around through the shelter and the sound of something burning. Outside the structure Commander William Ambeault of the United Earth Directorate waited. Backed by nearly a hundred siege tanks and Goliath class battle suits and not to mention nearly a thousand heavily armed marines he had the strange structure surrounded. His earlier reports of alien activity in the area had led him here and his scanners had detected a large amount of high tech weaponry and energy fluctuations. With his forces on the ground and his twenty Empire level Battle Cruisers and two hundred Wraith Fighter jets surrounding the building he had authorised the Team of Ghosts to go in first and take the aliens quietly. Sitting in hi chair at the front of his battle cruiser he watched. So far it was still quiet. Although from where Ambeault was standing it seemed to be taking too long. It was just as he was thinking this that the outside wall of the strange structure he had surrounded exploded. With the magnification of the image on his view screen he could see the figure of one glowing humanoid individual stepping out of the whole in the wall that one would assume he created. Ambeault assumed that since the figure was not one of the ghosts he had deployed it was a bad sign that he was still standing. It was a worse sign when the seemingly burning man looked around at the forces surrounding his shelter seemingly unconcerned. Turning around and taking a step back inside the glowing alien disappeared from view. After a few seconds he reappeared carrying two large objects. Increasing the magnification Ambeault couldn't believe what he saw. They were ghosts. Two of them. They were unconscious and slung over his shoulder like sacks of dirt. Carrying them out to the other side of the wall he dropped them carelessly and walked back inside. "How many did we send in there?" Ambeault asked one of his subordinates. "Twenty five of them sir" a nameless ensign to his left called out. Before the commander could respond however new movement on his screen caught his attention. A new figure had appeared in the hole in the wall. This one was carrying three of his ghost units. One slung over each shoulder and one being dragged by a foot in one hand. The ghosts were visible which by itself wasn't a good sign and their unmoving bodies seemed a worse one. The second figure was tall and lean but its proportions didn't seem alien at all to Ambeault. Although he couldn't tell from what he could see yet since the second wore a mask of some sort and a costume that masked all his features the commander had a sinking suspicion that these people were human. He couldn't explain his suspicion. The scanning read-outs and his own two eyes told him that they weren't. How many men burn with a strange blue energy and don't care when they're surrounded by thousands of enemies? Not many that the commander could think of. Still though. He knew his job and he would do it. These beings were powerful and they would either be powerful on the behalf of the UED or they would die. He couldn't allow them to fall into the hands of the directorate's enemies. Enemies like these could do some serious damage to a fleet if the scans they took were accurate. After a short while the second being had dropped the ghosts he carried outside the shelter and walked back inside exactly as the first had. And as Ambeault had expected a third came out momentarily. This one was larger. Much larger. At a guess the commander would have placed the alien at nearly ten feet tall. He ducked his head as he walked through the hole and carried nearly a dozen unconscious men. Piled up in his arms Ambeault had to suppress the urge to laugh when he saw it. Clenching his teeth instead he counted. Sixteen of his ghost units had apparently been neutralized and thrown away as though they were nothing more than yesterday's garbage. Waiting impatiently Commander Ambeault was surprised when no more figures appeared in the hole. Instead he noticed the door to the strange structure open and someone walk out. When he saw who it was that had left he let out an audible gasp. It was the rest of the ghosts. Or nearly all of them. Eight of the expertly trained covert soldiers walked out of the building, completely visible with their weapons slung over their shoulders. Once they had walked more than a hundred yards of the structure they stopped. There was a moment of absolute silence on board the Commander's ship as they waited for something to happen. Sitting silently he watched as a new figure walked through the door. It was human enough in appearance but something about the figure demanded Ambeault's attention. He stepped a few feet away from the building, looked around at the forces that surrounded him, turned and walked back inside without saying a word or making any kind of gesture. As soon as he had re-entered the building the eight ghosts that had been previously standing perfectly still slumped and fell to the ground. As the commander and his crew watched with a morbid fascination the soldiers did not move. After a few moments he turned his attention away from the fallen soldiers and back to the strange structure. In a moment the second figure reappeared in the hole and stood at the edge. Pausing for a moment he looked down and fidgeted with something metal he held in his hand. Raising it to his mouth he spoke. "Who are you and what do you want?" the figure asked. Startled by the sound of it's voice there was a pause before the commander said anything. Looking around he noticed the expectant expressions on the faces of his crew. Realizing what was going on he signaled for the com- officer to bring online the communications systems. Speaking into the microphone built into his uniform he gave the aliens his message. "Attention alien trespassers this is Commander William Ambeault of the United Earth Directorate. You are trespassing on UED land. Surrender for questioning immediately or suffer the consequences." as soon as he finished his message he thought he heard someone grunt something in response. He couldn't be sure however and casting a quick glance about his bridge he was sure it was someone on the other end of the communications line. Waiting for a response he watched and listened intently. Hearing no more messages from the black-clad masked alien on inside the structure he saw something he did not like at all. A new figure appeared in the hole. It held the last missing ghost unit and dragged him roughly by the head. The figure looked completely non-human but Ambeault still seemed reminded of earth by it. By appearance it seemed to be a cross between an earth tiger and gorilla. Putting its weight into the effort it bore back and threw the ghost well away from the structure. Sailing through the air the soldier landed heavily nearly five hundred yards away from the building itself. Nearly landing among the soldiers posted around the building on the ground Ambeault imagined the throw to have intimidated the regular soldiers quite a bit. Focusing the view-screen image on the fallen form of the last ghost he saw quite clearly that it was dead. The man lay on the ground with the left half of it's helmet completely crushed in. The rest of the man unscathed with the exception of what looked like finger imprints in the right side of his helmet. Waiting a moment for effect the beast-like alien paused outside the structure for two more gestures that it found necessary. The first was simple. The thing held out its hands and dropped something out of it onto the dirt. Upon inspection Ambeault recognized the objects it dropped as spent tranquilizer darts. The second gesture was even simpler than the first but it surprised the commander far more than either of the others. The beast-thing held out one hand and closed it with the exception of the middle finger which was held straight up. It was a symbol that every human in the galaxy recognized immediately and it was not a friendly one. As the creature turned and re-entered the hole in the structure the hole seemed to close. Onlookers were amazed as the tree-made structure seemed to heal itself up and return to its original appearance. Speaking again into his communicator he set the transmission to broadcast on all frequencies as well as on loudspeaker on all the ships' communicators. "Very well then. All units you have your orders. Engage." with that the world before him seemed to explode. As per his orders the tank units were the first to fire upon the structure. Two hundred tank units unleashing their payload of twin high impact heavy explosive shells the building was destroyed instantly. The entire structure was vaporized by the blast and there was nothing left of the targeted zone but a smoking crater. When the dust cleared however Ambeault saw the figures still unharmed and standing in the center of the crater. Looking closely he saw a slight glow in the eyes of the two that appeared most human. The male's eyes glowed a faint orange and seemed to cast their glow around the group of aliens forming a transparent cocoon of energy. The second was female and looked as human as anyone Ambeault had ever seen. With the exception of the electricity that seemed to flow freely from her eyes. Before he could truly take in the appearances of his enemies the cocoon of orange force receded and the aliens spread out. Eight of them each charged in separate directions appearing as battle-ready as anyone the commander had ever seen in his many years as a soldier. They each moved in their own manner. Some of the group were apparently capable of flying under their own power and did so quite well. Keeping low they focused on the ground forces at first. In seconds he found himself watching blue beams of burning energy rake over his tanks and reduce them to slag. The portions of the tanks that were touched by the energy melted and fused leaving the tanks immobile and defenseless. Those inside had been turned from warriors to prisoners without being able to do a thing to stop it. Storm clouds moved in from all directions and the largest electrical surges that any of his crew had ever seen were wreaking havoc on their ships' scanning equipment. Bolts of lightning seemed to shoot down at the electric-eyed females' gestures either knocking out or burning many of the marines who gained her attention. Larger bolts struck the Goliaths overloading their systems and arms of stone raised from the ground to trap them before they could reboot. Similarly strong winds and sudden fogs had arisen reducing visibility to virtually zero. Dust and debris filled the eyes of the marines on the ground making it extremely difficult to even locate an enemy less yet aim at one. Thus their firing was rare and even then it was only random bursts of fire by those at the front lines of the army. Losing sight of the entire east side of the battlefield among the fog and winds and unable to communicate to the soldiers on either half he was forced to watch his own half only. Looking below he saw the black-clad one who had communicated with him. The man was leaping and flipping between soldiers so quickly that none of the units under Ambeault's command could aim at him. Spraying the contents of their state of the art weaponry his soldiers hit nothing but dirt and air as the alien leaped and flipped and pulled himself along on cords he seemed to shoot from his wrists. Each time he landed it would be in the middle of a group of soldiers and with a few lightning- quick punches, kicks and throws he would render them unconscious seemingly effortlessly. Each time his path led him near an active tank or goliath battle suit he would land on top of it, grip part of it, rip that part off with unbelievable strength and shoot his chord-liquid into the insides of the machine. This would either immobilize it or those unlucky enough to find themselves inside it. Battle suits and tanks alike were rendered useless under the black suited alien's power. The others that Ambeault had seen were doing as much damage to his forces as the black suited one did. The large one was now apparently made of some form of organic metal. His scanners were inoperable so he didn't know it's composition but he could see tank shells strike the large being and do nothing. Likewise the bullets fired by marines and battle suits and the energy blasts fired by his fighter jets also did nothing to the large man and anything that found itself within arms reach of him soon found itself airborne and moving extremely quickly. Even the tanks which clamped themselves to the ground in their siege mode were ripped from the earth and tossed away landing hundreds of yards away. The sheer brute force of the being boggled the mind and Ambeault nearly didn't notice the actions of the others. The creature that had flipped the entire fleet off earlier was no longer the same. His body seemed to flow from one form to the next like some sort of nightmare creature. Nails, teeth, claws, pincers and horns ripped, slashed, stabbed and tore open anything and everything in it's path. The beast made no effort to dodge the shots fired by the marines. They struck him cleanly and hard in every part of him but the monster just didn't fall down. Bullets pierced the thing's body and the wounds didn't last any longer than they would had he been made of water. It's body flowed around the wounds and it went on as though they had never been inflicted. Many of those who attempted to fight the beast-thing at first now ran for their lives. Terrified by his horrific claws and teeth and generally every other part of his body they fled screaming as far and as fast as their legs would carry them. Tanks had un-clamped from the ground and attempted to flee as well but didn't make it far enough nearly fast enough. The monster's claws tore into the tanks' armors as effectively as they did everything else. Watching in horror Ambeault's attention turned away from the shape-changing alien freak and towards another of it's group. This one was originally small and scrawny by appearance but now wasn't human looking at all it had curled itself up and wrapped itself in a shell that was edged with a row of spikes. Forming a nearly perfect circle only with spikes around it the thing rolled and bounced into the midst of the UED forces. Bullets bounced off of it with no effect when they did manage to hit it and the quills it sprayed in response to the bullets brought down everyone that they struck. The quills hit soldier after soldier piercing their armor but by the looks of it barely breaking the skin. Still though each soldier that was struck fell to the ground motionless within a second of being struck. Ambeault assumed that the quills were either very poisonous or contained very powerful drugs. And despite this he watched as the spike ball bounced into the path of a tank shell. The thing seemed to be about as surprised by the sudden blast as any ball of what looked like stone would be. Caught in the air by the blast the ball was sent sailing through the air landing in the midst of more soldiers nearly two hundred yards away. Landing with a rapid series of bounces the ball struck each soldier with a quill and continued to roll about seeking new targets. Turning his attention to yet more problems he again noticed the man with glowing orange eyes. The human was flying through the air though Ambeault couldn't see how there was no obvious means of propulsion. No jet stream of energy or strong winds holding him aloft. He simply floated. Raising into the sky he stopped directly in the path of one of the other battle cruisers that Ambeault commanded. Floating there before it the cruiser opened fire at him. The dozen energy ports unleashed their contents at him simultaneously sending bolts of fiery death lancing towards the man. Arms folded across his chest, brown hair flowing in the wind the man made no visible effort at dodging or blocking the attack. When the blasts reached him however they splashed off of an unseen shield mere inches from his body. Unscathed by the attack the floating man held out one hand in response. Opening his hand one could just barely notice the same slight orange glow spread out around the battle cruiser. Watching the floating man's face one could see the concentration required as he manipulated telekinetic forces beyond all practical measure. The ship lurched backwards and tilted to the left suddenly. Holding that position for a second the entire ship quite suddenly seemed to rip itself to bits. Reduced to thousands of tonnes of useless metal bits and pieces it fell to the ground. As the pieces fell away Ambeault was shocked to see men floating where the ship had been. Hundreds of unarmed men and women floated there held aloft by the floating man's outstretched hand. They seemed to be unconscious but there was no visible damage. Relaxing visibly the man slowly lowered himself to the ground and those he held up followed after him. Landing safely and gently on the ground the men and women lay peacefully asleep on the ground in the midst of the chaos that surrounded them. Startled by a sudden alarm Ambeault looked around the bridge frantically for the cause. Looking about his attention stopped on two figures standing at a control panel at the far end of the bridge. One was a man dressed in a black cloak and covered with mechanical parts. Clearly cybernetic the man typed away efficiently at the control panel ignoring the world around it. The other figure was female. Tall, skinny and dressed all in white cloaks she stood behind the cyborg watching the rest of the bridge silently. Ambeault knew who the two were immediately though he had not seen them before. They were two more members of the group of aliens that his soldiers had attacked. "Security!!" the commander yelled as a dozen armed guards poured in through the door at the back of the bridge. seeing the intruders they brought their weapons to bear and fired immediately. The multiple beams of energy screamed through the air towards the two intruders on board Ambeault's ship. Passing through the two of them the beams burned their way into the bulkhead at the far end of the room. Baffled by the apparent intangibility of their enemy the guards stood. Not willing to wait and see what sabotage the cyborg had planned for his ship Ambeault reached for his sidearm. Bringing the pistol to bear he aimed past the two intruders at the control panel they were using. As he expected the bullet passed through the two harmlessly striking the panel securely. Shattering the controls the panel exploded and was left as nothing more than a smoking black mark on the wall. Startled by the sudden explosion the two turned around. Visibly angered the cyborg reached into his cloak to his side and procured an extremely advanced looking pistol. Raising the pistol the cyborg raised the weapon and fired it at Ambeault. A bolt of green energy lanced across the open air and struck him in the chest. A moment of blinding pain spread through him as his world went dark.. When he awoke everything was silent. Ambeault found himself laying on the floor on his bridge with what felt a lot like a severe hangover. Looking around he saw his entire bridge crew unconscious on the floor around him. Slowly raising himself to his feet he turned to find the two intruders still on board his ship. "Hello captain" The woman said to him. Saying nothing he looked the woman over. The commander was shocked to find how human the woman looked. If he met her under any other circumstances he would have guessed it would be on earth while visiting some college or university. "War's over" she continued "You lost" the cyborg piped in from the commanders seat. Some sort of mechanical tendrils extended from a mechanical device in his right forearm and plugged into the commander's personal computer. "Time to talk". "I am a UED commander and I am giving you your last chance to surrender. Take it or there will be severe consequences" Ambeault barked. As he did so his view screen caught his attention. The image on the screen was one that Ambeault had never imagined in the fifteen years that he had fought in this intergalactic war. The entire battlefield was quiet and still. His soldiers still stood alive and still relatively well but none of them were armed and he could clearly see that there was no fight left in them. Standing in the center of the battlefield the men stood together in a group surrounded by a moat of rapidly shifting sand. On the other side of the sand was a wall of stone. Seamless and tall it seemed impassable and was thick enough to have resisted the firepower his soldiers once possessed. On the other side of the quicksand and the wall were the weapons. The fallen and destroyed tanks and battle armors, the destroyed fighter jets and battle-cruisers sat heaped up and aflame all around the wall. Upon the wall sat the electric- eyed female. Paying no attention to the fields of flaming debris and captured soldiers. The woman's attention seemed to roam across the land. As she looked about the now ruined wasteland the battle had created the ground began to heal itself. Soil shifted and seemed to grow more healthy and plants sprouted up from the newly healed soil. Craters and burns disappeared from the land and damaged and fallen plants repaired themselves and sprouted new leaves. As Ambeault watched in astonishment the battle ravaged fields seemed to transform into I lush meadow. The spectacle of it actually took Ambeault's mind off of his lost battle. "My God" he muttered. "That's incredible". "Yes it is isn't it?" came a new voice from behind him. Turning to look he saw a tall blonde young man standing in the doorway of what was once his bridge. The man looked to Ambeault to be disturbingly human. He was lean but seemed sturdy enough for an average man in his early twenties. The black mask had receded from his face showing his features to anyone who cared to look at him. "Are you the leader of this group" Ambeault demanded stubbornly. He made a constant effort to not seem intimidated by his captors despite the unbelievable feats he had seen them perform. The man seemed startled a bit by the question and looked to the other two in the room uneasily. "Yeah he is. What's it to you?" The cyborg answered from behind the commander. "What's your name?" Ambeault continued without turning his attention away from the blonde stranger. "Call me Spider I guess" came the man's reply. "Spider? So you people have been to Earth then?" Ambeault asked. "Once or twice" Spider laughed "We were born and raised there". Despite himself Ambeault nodded. "Then I may owe you people an apology... we were told you were aliens. Dangerous aliens." "Damn right you owe us an apology!!" Tech yelled out suddenly from behind him. "Here we were trying to stop you people without killing, an idea YOUR men didn't follow suit on I might add and what do we get? Bullets and tank blasts everywhere! And you! Do you have any idea how annoying it was when you blew up that control panel? When your men saw you do it they got the idea and I went through nearly twenty panels before I finally got in to the system. The stupid inbred overtrained morons made me put every one of them down. All to stop me from harmlessly disabling this overgrown inbred merry- go-round when we could have completely slagged it in seconds! What the hell is that?!?" Tech's rant was such that Ambeault couldn't turn his attention away from it. As the cyborg man stopped yelling however Ambeault noticed the other two laughing. "Don't mind him" the white cloaked woman put in. "He's just annoyed cause he wasn't allowed to blow stuff up. And he likes the word inbred." she added. "Anyway what we wanna know is where did you people come from? Why did you attack us?" Spider cut in this time more certain of himself. "We picked up readings on our scanners of wildly powerful energy fluctuations and of highly advanced weaponry. Our scans led us to you people. And the command back at our deep space outpost told us to capture you." after a moment he added. "As powerful as you people are we couldn't allow you to fall into the hands of our enemies." "You mean the Zerg or the Protoss?" Tech asked. Quickly holding out a hand Spider silenced the cyborg. "So you already know about the war then? How? Which side are you on?" Ambeault asked puzzled. "Word couldn't have reached earth yet. It wouldn't for another three months at the earliest and even then the public wouldn't be told that much." "As hard as it may be for you to believe Commander, we know because we've played it in a video game." Spider answered solemnly. "The UED, the Zerg, The Protoss, the sons of Korhal. They're all teams you can use in a very popular sci-fi war game." He said. Ambeault nearly laughed aloud. "A game? Are you people mad? This may prove to be the single most dangerous situation Earth has ever faced." he said. "Not where we're from" the woman identified as Wraith put in. In answer to his unspoken question she continued. "We're from Earth in the year 2003..." she said. "But probably not your Earth by the sound of things" Spider added. "That's impossible" Ambeault said stubbornly. "Come on commander." Spider argued. "As an explorer of space yourself is it so hard to believe that space is infinite?" he asked. Ambeault stood silently and slowly shook his head. "Exactly. And in a truly infinite universe it's impossible for anything to NOT exist right?" Spider said as though he had thought a lot about the subject. Not willing to argue the point with three people who had, without weapons defeated a fleet of the sector's best trained and best equipped soldiers with no apparent difficulty he nodded. "Alright. If it is true how did you get here? What do you plan to do to us?" he asked. "You're human. We're not gonna hurt a bunch of humans." Spider said. "Even if they are a bunch of inbred psychotic jerks who tried to kill us suddenly and for no reason." Tech added. "Tell us how to contact you're allies and we'll have them come and get you. Once we've told them the situation we'll be on our way and they'll be here to pick you people up in a bit right?" Wraith asked. Thinking on it Ambeault shook his head. "They wont leave you at peace. You people destroyed billions of credits of UED equipment. Considering this and the potential you people have for the war they'll hunt you down." he said. Spider looked disappointed. "That wouldn't be wise. I'm sure you realize that." he said. Ambeault nodded. "I do but I am not in charge of the rest of the UED forces in this sector. The people who are aren't as reasonable as one would like. And considering I lost my thousands of well trained soldiers and high-tech vehicles and weaponry to nine unarmed humans who we found out in the middle of nowhere I don't think my opinion will hold much weight." Ambeault told them solemnly. "In that case what if we made it up to them?" Spider suggested. "Tech you've looked over their ship designs and tactical programs I'm sure right?" Tech nodded. "How much can you improve their technology with the parts they've got available to them?" after a moment Tech answered. "I could improve all aspects of their ships' efficiency by nearly eight hundred percent without giving them any major technologies they lack." Ambeault was dumb-stricken. "You can what?" he asked. Turning his attention from Spider to the commander he answered. "I can make your ships and weapons a little less than eight times as efficient as they are now. With the changes in design I thought up you guys would have the firepower and speed needed to really beat the hell out of the bugs you got problems with." He said in reference to the bug-like aliens known as the Zerg. "Would something like that get your superiors off our backs?" Spider asked him. "I...I don't know" Ambeault responded slowly. "They'd be stupid not to but men are getting more and more greedy these days." he said. "Well we'll go talk to them about it then. They can either take the upgrades and leave us be or they can try to press us for more and risk the damage we can do to their fleets." Spider said evenly. "I hope they realize how serious that damage would be." Ambeault agreed.  
  
Chapter 3:It only took a few minutes for Tech to construct a long range communications device with all of the mechanical debris laying around. After that it took mere seconds to get in touch with the deep space UED settlement nearly trillions of miles away. Sixteen hours later a fleet arrived to transport the beaten soldiers and the Anomalies who beat them back to the station. When they first arrived it took nearly an hour of argument by Ambeault before the armed forces decided it wasn't a good idea to transport the Anomalies as prisoners of war. Though he didn't know it the commander's arguments weren't what changed the new soldiers' minds. Psyche simply decided it would be easier if he interceded. Thus instead of waiting patiently in the brig of the twelve battle-cruiser's that came along specifically to transport them, they traveled together on board one battle-cruiser and enjoyed all the leisurely activities available to people on board such vehicles. The activities however were severely limited seeing as how it wasn't a vehicle designed for comfort or fun. Thus spending their time sitting in a room bored out of their minds they waited fourteen hours as the ship made its way towards the space station. When they finally arrived there they were greeted by five hundred armed guards pointing their respective weapons at the Anomalies' heads. "Hello gentlemen" an unarmed man at the front of the group of guards said. The man was dressed in the same uniform that Ambeault wore. Thus logic would dictate that the man was another Commander. "Which one of you is the one called Tech? I've heard he has something for me." "Yeah I got something for you ya inbred moronic power mad..." Tech muttered reaching to his side for his pistol. "Tech not now" Spider interrupted. Looking to Psyche he nodded. In a moment the entire group of armed guards had lost consciousness due to the telepathic manipulations of Callahan Connors. Falling to the ground silently they slept leaving the commander suddenly very nervous standing before the Anomalies. Looking again at Tech Spider spoke again. "Now" he said and without a word tech pulled out the pistol he had been reaching for earlier and pressed it hard to the commander's forehead. "Now was that any way to treat your guests?". As it turned out the new commander could be quite reasonable when given the chance (assuming of course that the chance in question is accompanied by a pistol pressed against your forehead if you aren't reasonable). After less than an hour the UED forces had given up all intentions of forcing the Anomalies to do their bidding or of capturing the Anomalies at all. All the decision required to spur it on was the sudden loss of consciousness of every armed person on board the space station with the exception of Tech. With the soldiers out of the picture the real diplomacy came into play and as it turned out the diplomats on board the station were quite reasonable. "After a brief discussion with some of my fellow commanding officers we have decided that your offer is acceptable. In exchange for your services upgrading our technologies we will... overlook the damages you caused to our forces and we'll let you be on your way." The new officer said nervously. The man's name was Jonathan Singh and he was indeed a commander like Ambeault. Singh however was speaking on behalf of the entire station. The admirals that had been in charge previously were absent at the moment. Apparently on a diplomatic mission to a alien city somewhere far away. So in their place was Singh who despite his best efforts simply could not command the respect of the Anomalies. He couldn't even get them to call him by any kind of formal title. Instead they called him Johnny. "Thanks a lot Johnny." Spider said playfully "But tell me. Where are the real commanding officers? Why aren't we speaking to the people in charge?". After a moment Singh answered. "They are off on a diplomatic mission to a interspecies city a few days away from here." he answered. "I see... will the decision stand on your authority alone?" Spider asked. At this Commander Singh seemed offended. "I'll have you know that in their absence I am authorised to make any decisions I see fit. When they return they will go by the contract I have chosen. There will be no argument I assure you." at this the Anomalies seemed content. With a nod Spider signaled to Tech for him to hand over the design upgrades. Without a word the cybernetic man procured a small disc from his cloak and handed it to one of the nearby ensigns. Taking the disc from the previously mentioned ensign Commander Singh smiled. "Thank you gentlemen your contributions will be remembered." he said as he turned to walk away. Without looking back he began to walk away and called out to them as he went. "Someone will see you out... goodbye." he said as he turned around a corner and was lost from view. Before the Anomalies could respond an alarm sounded from above. Startled and confused the Anomalies looked about at each other trying to both determine what was going on and to decide what to do. In that order if possible. As Spider opened his mouth to speak someone came running towards them. "HELP!" the man yelled "We're being attacked". Spider didn't have to say a thing. They knew already what they were going to do. They were going to help in any way they could. Psyche focused for a moment as he reversed the effects of his earlier telepathic attacks. After only a few seconds the sleeping guards began to wake. Hurried along by the sounds of the alarms and by a very insistent voice in their heads they were running to their battle stations before a full minute had passed. As they moved to prepare Spider was already handing out orders. "Tech get someone to lead you to a shuttle bay or something. Jury-rig something for use and meet the others out there. Psyche, Inferno get out there and do what you can to fight the attackers off. No deadly force till we know for sure what's going on. The rest of us will do what we can from on board the station. Spread out and help where you can. Sage you're with me... everyone got it?" with a nod they each ran off in the appropriate directions. "Oh and Cal?" Spider called out. "If its too much don't bother but I'd like us to all know what's going on so keep us in touch if you can alright?" he asked. "You got it." Psyche answered before stepping into the depressurization chamber between the station and the space outside. Before the door closed Inferno had joined them. The doors closed, a light went on above the doorway signaling exposure to the void beyond and Psyche and Inferno were off into action. Turning to Sage who had waited behind for him he wasn't willing to waste time standing around. Silently he moved to her and picked her up with one arm. "Brace yourself" He said as he began to run down the corridors. After a second he found someone who he was looking for. A few brief seconds of questioning had awarded him the directions he needed and seconds later he was off again. Carrying Sage over one shoulder he leaped bounded and ran down corridors and up ladders. Crossing the distance faster than any human could ever hope to he had traveled the equivalent of five city blocks in under a minute. Rounding a corner he nearly collided with a pair of uniformed officers running down the corridor in the opposite direction. Reacting instinctively he bounded upwards and kicked off the ceiling. All the startled officers had seen was a black blur go whipping by overhead as they heard the sounds of some unknown female cursing profusely. Finally reaching his destination he stopped in a doorway. Lowering Sage from her position over his shoulder he didn't have time to check if she was alright or not. Much as he would have preferred not to have carried her so roughly he didn't options. In the artificial environments of a space station her abilities were severely limited and in the endless void of space they were eve less. It was due to this that Spider was unwilling to let Sage out of his sight. Knowing that any of the Anomalies would leap into battle without hesitation he wasn't prepared to risk her being hurt if he could prevent it. Setting her down as gently as he possibly could. She slumped to the floor groaning slightly. Standing over her he spent as much time as he was willing to checking to be sure she was uninjured. Satisfied in that he stood up and stepped through the door. On the other side he found the command center of the Station. Taking note of the dangers in the room instantly he turned his attention to the view-screen at the front of the room. On the screen was an image he never would have expected. Placed against the backdrop of endless stars he had seen often enough in movies he saw the two friends he had ordered out into the void. Floating side by side the faced outward watching the oncoming danger. Following their gaze to whatever it was they were looking at Spider gasped. Gradually floating closer to the station were three ships. They made no effort to slow down or speed up. Nor did they seem to be making any effort of concealing their attack till they got closer. Instead they simply proceeded along their course as though the obstacles in their path didn't exist. The ships themselves were cubes. They didn't appear to leave any trail to show their means of propulsion and the exterior of the cubes looked as though they had been constructed from the minds of a very detail oriented child with kinex. There didn't appear to be an exterior hull at all and machines could be seen inside clearly. Recognizing the ship immediately Spider stepped outside the command center to rejoin Sage. Finding her again standing on her own two feet he placed a hand on her shoulder to command her attention. "Its about to get fairly dangerous around here." he said. After a moment she nodded and Spider again entered the Command center. This time he didn't bother looking around the room. With Sage at his side he watched the view- screen intently ignoring the chatter of the officers in the room and the noise of the equipment. When the voice came he wasn't startled. It was a voice he had been expecting given the images he had seen and still it unnerved him. "We are Borg" the voice said. "You will be assimilated".  
  
Chapter 4: "Commander I think we're in trouble here." Spider said gathering the attention of all those on the bridge. Turning away from him the commander opened a channel and attempted to communicate with the oncoming cubes. "Attention unidentified vessels. This is Commander Jonathan Singh of the UED you are on a direct collision course with our station. Power down your weapons and change course immediately or you will be fired upon." he said into the microphone built into the side of his chair. Waiting a moment in silence he realized there would be no response. The ships had not sent any messages back to the station nor did they power down or change course. They ignored his messages entirely as they continued towards their destination. Still ignoring the words of Spider the commander continued. "Alright then. All units fire at will" he said as several officers enthusiastically pressed several buttons on their respective control panels. Seeing the weapons fire on the view-screen image Spider saw as the numerous beams and missiles darted forward striking the lead cube. As they struck however the beams seemed to refract throughout the ship and the missiles didn't do any visible damage whatsoever. Checking the scans tactical scans the devices on board the station had recorded an officer to Spider's left called out. "Not a bit of damage sir". Letting out an audible sigh the commander turned to Spider and spoke. "You know something about these things don't you?" he asked. "Not directly but I've seen enough to know their dangerous." Spider responded evenly. Despite the fact that he was as scared as he had ever been he tried to appear strong and detached. He nearly managed it but those that knew him would have noticed the slight change in his posture and the barely audible quiver in his voice. "I know you're energy weapons wont do a thing and the missiles don't explode nearly powerful enough to damage their hull." he continued. "But you've already noticed that." there was a pause as the commander considered his words. "Alright so what do you propose? Nuking them?" he asked. The question startled Spider. Taken aback he stood silent for a moment. Taking this as a sign Singh turned and gave the order to prepare several of the nuclear missiles the station was armed with. Once this was done he turned his attention back to Spider. "Well? Will nukes work?" he asked. "I don't know." Spider said uneasily. "If they would work it'd have to be from inside their shields. Nukes could probably destroy the machinery but the force fields would stop it." he guessed. "Well then we bring down the shields." the commander said. "Any ideas on how to do that?" he asked. Before Spider could respond the lead cube fired. The beam lanced outwards and struck the station somewhere near the far edge. Not meant to damage the hull the blast disabled the energy systems in the section of the station it had struck. The lights above them flickered slightly as the proper power began to reroute itself. Suddenly a voice appeared in Chase's head. "Sweet unholy crap cakes Spider do you know what's going on out here?" came Inferno's telepathically relayed thoughts. "Yeah, Borg." Chase thought back at him. "Deal with it. We'll do what we can from here." in response to this there was silence but Spider could see the small blue burning image of Inferno suddenly glowing brighter. After a moment a bolt of solid golden energy lanced away from Inferno and shot towards the lead cube. The blast struck the cube mid ship and sent burst of visible electric energy ripping out through the rest of the ship. When the surge of energy subsided the cube was still there. The only visible damage was a small blackened portion in the middle of one side of the cube. The blast had pierced the cube's shields the first time and didn't do enough damage to stop the ship. As a result the blasts wouldn't affect the cubes any further. That wouldn't stop Inferno however from absorbing any attacks the cube attempted. Inferno was more capable of absorbing energy assaults than even the Borg were. He usually managed it the first time. "Dammit that was as hard as I could hit and they barely noticed." Inferno said in the minds of his fellow Anomalies. In response to this a new voice came from somewhere else. "Don't worry bout it Chris we got a plan" came Creature from his position on board the station. "What have you got Creature?" Spider sent out immediately. "Tech and I just finished changing a fighter jet. We're gonna take it inside one of those cubes and he's gonna take it over." Came the response. Spider paused for a second to consider it. "Alright then but be careful" he thought to them. "What's going on with the rest of you?" He thought literally out loud. Each other member of the Anomalies then gave him their position in response. Tank and Frenzy had take up positions in the engineering area of the station and were guarding it in case of any attempt at taking it over by the Borg. The report reminded Spider that there was a good chance that Borg drones would likely be on board the station very soon. The though disturbed him. Wraith had collected a couple guns and was patrolling the living areas of the station. Phasing through walls and floors she made good progress checking everywhere she went for ways she could help. "If you run into trouble let us know we'll be right down." Spider told her. When the last person spoke it want through a telepathic relay it was from directly behind Spider. Turning around he nearly laughed as Sage reported to him as ordered. "And I'm right in front of you waiting for a way to make myself useful." she said. Beneath his mask Chase was smiling despite himself. "You'll be moral support at very least Telli" Spider joked at her. Turning his attention away from her for a moment he began speaking to the commander and anyone else on the bridge who would listen. "Alright we might be able to handle this without nukes. From here on there's nothing much you people can do to help. We'll handle it. I do suggest you all take up whatever weapons you can and get ready to use them. The Borg do most of their fighting in person. Avoid energy weapons cause they'll only work once at best and if you're using bullets keep shooting several seconds after you think they're dead." he said them and waited as the commander repeated the instructions to the people on board his station via the intercom system. As soon as he had finished speaking the first drones appeared. Five of them materialized around the control center. And instantly opened fire. "DOWN" Spider yelled as he saw them appear. As they reacted by ducking behind bulkheads and any other cover they could find the room turned into a battle-zone. Leaping above the bullets and energy fire exchanged by the two species' in the room Spider hit the ceiling and clung. Scrambling along he stopped directly above the nearest drone. Letting go of the ceiling he fell from above landing heavily on the drone's back. Before the thing could react he had latched on to its arms and pressed his feet against the small of it's back. Pushing with his feet and pulling with his arms he put several tonnes of force into the effort effectively removing the drones arms from it's body. Launched away by the pull spider flipped over backwards and charged at the drone again. This time with a severed drone arm in each hand and wielding them as clubs he knocked it over and beat it severely. Given the adrenaline in his system and the frenzy he was currently in because of it he likely wouldn't have stopped hitting the drone till he had pounded it through several floors and it was floating in space. That would only happen however if the other drones would give him that chance. Suddenly tensing and flipping straight up Spider narrowly avoided three beams of red energy as they shot towards him. Landing again on the fallen drone after the blasts had stopped he kicked off of it and dove towards the next drone. Before he had cleared half the distance across the room he twisted and threw the severed arms he had been carrying. Sailing through the air purposefully the cybernetic limbs struck the second drone directly in the face knocking it from it's feet. Landing on it's back the drone could do nothing as Spider covered it in a blanket of webbing. Pinned beneath the webbing the drone was trapped and would be able to do nothing for the three hours before Spider's web fluid dissolved. It wasn't likely however that anyone would do anything to remove the webbing before it dissolved though. It would have been pointless seeing as how with one hard kick Spider had reduced the drone's face to nothing more than goo and spare parts beneath the webbing. Leaping above the fight yet again he clung to the ceiling and surveyed the rest of the scene. His heart nearly stopped when he saw where the last three drones had gone. Killing two of the officers with their weapons two had circled around the bulkhead that Sage had take cover behind and were closing in on her. Reacting before he had finished a thought Spider dropped to the floor and launched himself as hard as he could towards them. Diving through the air he connected solidly with one of the drones. Slamming into it with the force of a bullet train the unsuspecting drone connected with the far wall and was shattered to bits by the impact. In his determination at reaching the drones before they reached Sage Spider didn't hold back any of his force and went with the drone well past where he intended. Hitting the far wall with only the drone as cushioning he went right through it. Steel frame and wires beneath gave way to airborne superhuman young man. Landing in a heap and tangled in wires and debris Spider struggled to free himself and help sage. Slowed considerably by the debris he was back through the whole in seconds. Looking towards the scene unfolding he saw only the back of the second drone as it closed to within arm's reach of her. He wanted to scream. He wanted to yell out something to spite the gods that had allowed this to happen but there were no words. He had to try something. Try to stop the drone with webbing or a stinger or something. Anything. Pulling himself forward he dragged behind him several tons of wreckage and wire. Sparks flew as he pulled. For a moment he thought he would make it. He was nearly within reach of the drone and it hadn't yet reached Sage. Reaching out he tried to grab the drone. Tried to let loose all the power he could muster into one pull. Before he could grab it however a bolt of red energy lanced towards him. Spider sense screaming in the back of his skull he tried to twist out of the way. Tried to leap out of the path of danger but he was too tangled. The bolt struck him in the chest knocking the wind from his lungs. Falling backwards Spider landed heavily amidst the debris. Moving a hand to feel the wound he felt no hole. The beam had burnt him but his costume had taken the worst of it. Still it hurt and worse it slowed him. Struggling to his feet his spider sense screamed again. Twisting to the side as quickly as he could a second blast struck him in the ribs. Yelling out in pain Spider again fell to the floor. Landing on his side more tangled than before he looked up to see what horrors had befallen his teammate. Looking up he saw the drone standing exactly where it had been. In exactly the same position. Thinking on it he looked closer. At the joints of the drone he saw hints of grey and light blue. To his amazement frost had formed around the drone. It was frozen in its tracks. Looking past it he saw Sage. She was standing over one of the fallen UED officers and seemed to be doing something to him involving water and his wounds. After a moment he realized she was healing him somehow. After a few seconds she reached down and took the officer's gun. Standing up she turned towards the frozen drone and opened fire. The flash of gunfire made Spider look away as a stream of bullets shot forth and struck the drone in its mid- section. As soon as the first bullets had struck the drone shattered in an explosion of small frozen shards. Suppressing the urge to cheer so soon Spider looked past her. Seeing the last drone aiming for her he finally did yell out. "TELLI DOWN!!" he shouted as she turned to look. Hearing his warning just in time she ducked behind another bulkhead. As it turned out she ducked just in time as the beam of red energy lanced through the air her head had previously been occupying. Shooting past her the beam burned a trench into the wall behind her. Peeking from behind her cover Sage was surprised to see the threat taken care of. The UED had taken their chance while the last drone was distracted and simultaneously opened fire on it. At least a dozen streams of bullets from high powered machine guns cut through the air and slammed into the distracted drone. Falling to the ground the soldiers didn't in fact stop firing for nearly a full minute after they were sure it was dead. With the aid of some well placed bursts of near absolute zero Spider was able to break his way free of the tangled mess he had gotten himself into and soon he was standing among the other surviving combatants in what was left of the damaged command center. Meanwhile several decks below the engineering bay was under attack. In the engineering bay however there were far more than just five drones however. Instead there were nearly fifty. And appearing out of nowhere they took the defenders completely by surprise. Now only Tank stood between them awake and well enough to resist them. And on the other side of him stood the main power source for the entire station. If they reached it he wouldn't be able to stop them from taking the entire station. Worse was the fact that he also had to stop them from harming his unconscious friend. Under one arm he carried Frenzy as he heard the metal footsteps and first saw the drones coming into the room. With one voice they spoke. "Resistance is futile" They said. "You will be assimilated". In his armored form Tank didn't fear at all for his own safety. The beams fired by the drones were completely useless against him and any of them that got within arms reach of him didn't last long. He had reduced the first five drones that attacked to useless piles of debris before they truly knew what hit them. At the moment they actually seemed unsure of what to do. Lining one wall of the engineering room they paused. It seemed they were trying to formulate a strategy. Tank wasn't going to give them the chance to do so. Putting Frenzy down on the floor he reached down and dug his fingers into the floor. Pulling up a large section of the metal floor he bent it over and around frenzy. The protective cocoon he had built would shield Frenzy from the borg's energy blasts but they would likely get past it if he gave them the time to do so. So he wasn't going to. Turning his back on the fallen Anomaly he turned towards the drones. Judging by the looks of them they weren't designed for any kind of speed. It seemed that their strengths lay in cold efficiency and relative strength. Well if that were the case they were in trouble. Every kind of strength Tank had ever encountered was relative. Relatively insignificant. He was the strongest, toughest, most unstoppable humanoid that had ever lived. He wasn't prepared to let mere numbers threaten him. Borg or not the drones were insignificant. They wouldn't cause him much problems. He was determined not to let them. Before the drones began to move again they spoke once more. Their singular voice projecting from each of the drones at once was chilling to say the least. Worse than the voice however were the words. They were not a threat they were a certainty. Stating the facts as though there were no other possibilities. "We will add your technological and physiological uniqueness to our own. Resistance is futile." as they spoke they moved as one. Each stepping forward in unison and each turning to face him. There were no guards left, the weaker UED officers had all fallen in the first attack. Now only tank stood against them. Each of the drones raised their arms, each aimed as they walked and each fired at once. The beams of red energy lit up the room as they cut the air towards tank. Splashing off of his metal flesh he didn't even feel a thing. He knew the blasts had struck him however from the sight. He could see the blasts deflect off of his hide shooting out at random points in the room. Walls were scorched and machines were destroyed by the deflected beams. He would have returned fire if he were anywhere else. His own blasts however were far too powerful to let loose inside a space ship. His twin cannon blasts would likely punch a hole right through the stations inner walls and rip right out into space. Instead he was forced to resort to just physical power. That didn't bother him. Physical power was his specialty. Stepping out to meet them he slammed into the tide of drones scattering them like bowling pins. Fists swinging Tank shattered and scattered every drone he could reach. Nearly thirty of them had fallen before he turned to look at the rest of the scene. The other drones were not focusing on him. They were walking towards the main power core. The large metal pillar in the middle of the room was much as he imagined a space station's power core would look like. Reaching from floor to ceiling it had panels on the exterior that seemed at least partially transparent. The entire spectrum of visible colors flowed around on the other side of the panels casting a series of randomly colored and shaped lights across the room. The effect was similar to a lava lamp. Or would have been if there were a lava lamp somewhere that manipulated energy far more potent and abundant than that of a nuclear reactor. Actually there is. Many of them actually but none of them fit into the story so we'll leave the cosmic lava lamps out of it. In the mixed light of the power core and the artificial white lights of the station Tank charged back to the core trying to catch the drones before they reached the machine. Running as fast as he could which apparently no drone could match he caught up with them as he charged. Grabbing those he past and crushing them as quickly as he could Tank tossed the drones aside and over his shoulder as he moved to stop more of them. The last drone was literally less than an inch from the core when tank reached him. Wires extending from the drones wrist it was within milliseconds of linking with the machine and fulfilling whatever nefarious scheme the collective had devised when the drone suddenly found itself grabbed violently, torn away from the core and held face to face with a ten foot tall, twelve hundred pound, very angry, metal skinned individual. The wires that had previously trying to link with the core were now repeatedly trying to stab into Tank's skin. Unable to pierce Tank's metal hide the drone stubbornly kept trying as Tank lifted him up into the air and threw him towards the wall he had earlier been standing against. Sailing through the air the drone made no noise. It said nothing as it slammed into the wall and immediately upon impact ceased to function. Looking about the room Tank saw no more active drones. He had stopped them all. He was about to relax and congratulate himself mentally if not out loud when a sudden familiar green glow appeared in dozens of places around the room. Materializing within the areas of glowing space was more drones. Lots more. This time they didn't wait to come up with a plan. This time they simply marched towards their goal. More drones than Tank could count under such tense conditions were marching towards the core and still only he stood in their way.  
  
Passing through yet another deck Wraith floated upwards checking in on more of the helpless officers on board the station. There weren't many that she encountered. This was a strategic military station. The vast majority of those on board it were soldiers and soldiers armed themselves in such situations. Wraith found that they were as well equipped to deal with drones as she was. When the shooting began it seemed to Wraith that the humans stood a good chance against these Borg things. Outnumbering the drones and grouped together many of the drones had been cut down by bullet fire just as Wraith arrived. Feeling as though she wasn't accomplishing anything and determined to help the situation she sped along through the station looking for any more firefights she could help in. It didn't take her long to find one. Phasing through a wall she found herself in what appeared to be the mess hall. A large square room with numerous tables and chairs scattered around it. On her left was a counter where she assumed the meals were prepared and served. Now however it wasn't food being served in the mess hall. It was death. Several dozen humans had taken cover behind the counter at the side of the room and were firing from behind it at the Borg drones that returned fire. Around the room there were at least a dozen dead humans and dozens more that were laying in a half conscious state as metal implants sprouted from their flesh. Their veins turned blue and their eyes were vacant as the assimilation process claimed them. Soon they would be drones and they would add to the already larger number of drones that plagued the station. Only two drones that Wraith could see were dead. Shot down and laying at two separate points in the hall they were abandoned and ignored by the twenty odd drones that were still in combat. Ignoring the risk of bullet fire the drones had spread out and were marching towards the UED soldiers behind their cover. Firing constantly they left the soldiers with no chance to peek from behind and return fire. Two had tried anyway and were either killed instantly or severely injured Wraith could not tell from where she stood. Deciding upon her course of action she ran across the room bringing the two guns she carried to bear. They were relatively light for guns and she didn't have any trouble carrying them though she hadn't yet fired them. Leaving the ground she dove and floated across the room still picking up speed. Flicking te switch at the sides of her guns with her thumbs she removed what was identified as the safety. Aiming in mid dive she squeezed the triggers. Twin streams of bullets erupted from the muzzles of her guns and screamed through the air. Catching the drones off guard the sudden stream of fire struck the closest drone in the back sending it sprawling and twitching to the ground. Sparks erupted from the whole she had put in its back and the drone made no attempt at regaining its feet. Still floating through the air in mid dive she turned to the next target and began to fire again. Before she had reached the drones she had brought down three with her streams of fire. Turning to react the drone began to fire at her as she continued towards them. The beams they fired passed through her harmlessly. Encouraged by this she didn't turn to avoid the drone directly in her path. Instead she ignored it and fired at another drone to her right. Flying through the air the drone attempted to catch her with its assimilating stingers but they too passed through her body as she floated right through its chest. Not looking directly at the drone she phased through Wraith didn't notice the grey energy that coursed through the drones body when she phased through it. Landing from her dive and rolling to her feet she turned and fired at the drone she was closest to. At nearly point blank range she let loose her bullets and brought it down. Backing up as she fired she collided with something metal. Turning to see what she had bumped into she found herself face to face with a drone. Shifting to her phasing form she dismissed the danger and brought her guns up to press against the drone's head. The drone stopped her however with a swing of its arm. Caught solidly across the head by the hit Wraith staggered to her side and fell to the ground. Shocked she focused her attention on the drone and finally it occurred to her. She couldn't phase. The drones had adapted. Raising her guns to fire she lat loose the last of her bullets into the drone that had hit her. She couldn't stop it. She hadn't checked her ammunition and no longer possessed enough bullets to bring the drone down. Instead it staggered back a few steps under the force of her last few bullets. Regaining it's balance she watched as it was joined by two more drones and they began to move towards her. As they moved towards her she knew she didn't have time to get to her feet seemingly unable to use her phasing powers at all she couldn't fly either. All she could do was scramble backwards on her elbows trying desperately to get away from the drones that walked after her. Doing just that her heart missed several beats when she bumped into something. Turning away from the three drones that were in front of her she looked up. Standing over her in all its hideously grotesque technology was another drone. Bending down towards her it reached out one arm and the wires stretched out towards her. She could do nothing to stop it as the drone's stingers stretched out to assimilate her.  
  
In the shuttle bay things had remained relatively quiet. While tech had worked away on the fighter jet he was modifying Creature stood guard waiting somewhat hopefully for some sign of a fight. The only fight he got however was one solitary drone marching down one hallway in pursuit of one terrified soldier. Catching the drone in mid stride Creature slammed into it in the form very similar to that of a Minotaur. Slamming the drone into the far wall of the hallway Creature shifted himself some nasty looking claws and ripped the drone to bits. Returning feeling more than a little disappointed Creature was honestly (and foolishly) happy when Tech gave him the news. "Alright, all done. Lets go" Nodding enthusiastically Creature leaped up in the air and landed on the roof of the ship they intended to fly. Opening the roof hatch he didn't wait for Tech who was climbing the ladder to reach the entrance. Instead he just jumped into the ship. Sat in one of the two seats and buckled himself in. When Tech reached the inside of the ship and did the same they didn't say a word. Instead Tech flipped a series of switches and started up the machine. "So now that you've fixed it the Borg wont be able to shoot us down right?" Creature asked anxiously. In response Tech laughed. "With what I've done to this ship the Borg wont even be able to make the idiot lights turn on." and with that the shuttle bay doors began to open and the ship floated out into the void. Not bothering to take hold of the physical controls Tech extended wires from his wrists which connected with a plug in point in the control panel in front of him. Watching this it occurred to Creature that Tech was not unlike the Borg in his abilities. They were both superhuman cybernetic heavily armed entities capable of adapting to almost any technological problem. This didn't bother him though. He knew that his ally was nothing similar to the soulless killing machines they were out to fight. And he also knew that Tech's capabilities as a machine were far superior to those of your average Borg drone. "Look out collective the Super-Borg is coming for you" he said with a smile as he saw the three cubes getting steadily closer in the window in front of him. After a moment of silence the cubes had continued to get bigger and bigger in Creature's view. After that moment Creature decided to comment on that fact. "Umm these things are pretty big." he said quietly. "Yeah well the bigger they are..." Tech began but before he could finish something caught his eye. It was Inferno. Glowing brighter than either of the two other Anomalies had ever seen they turned to watch his burn grow not just brighter but larger as well. He was charging up another blast. And this time both Tech and Creature could tell that he wasn't pulling any punches. Holding his hands out in front of him a ball of pure golden light formed in his palms. Growing rapidly and already too bright to look directly at the ball surged with energy enough to cleave continents into bits. It was not a continent he fired at however and when the blast was released it didn't cleave much either. Tech and Creature watched speechlessly as the blast struck the lead Cube in the middle of one of it's sides. They watched the resulting explosion as the ball of energy exploded outwards and they watched as that energy splashed across the surface of the Borg cube. When the blast had faded and they could see the results neither could believe their eyes. The cube was intact. There was a scorch mark where the blast had struck but there didn't seem to be any real damage. When the cube fired back however their fears were lessened slightly. Scanning the attack Tech said that the beam was less than one tenth the force it had been before. While there was no visible damage to the cube apparently it's weapons were weakened severely. The other two cubes however were as yet unscathed by the battle. And their weapons were not only at full strength but also turned towards the vessel that Creature and Tech had modified. There were a series of beeps from the control panel in front of Creature as the ship's computers warned him of the series of beams and photon torpedoes heading directly towards them. Hearing the same warnings projected into his own internal computers Tech acted. Throwing the ship into evasive maneuvers the jet spun and darted about at speeds that Creature couldn't even hope to guess at. Beams whipped by as the ships maneuvers brought them closer to the second cube. Circling above the ship was forced to dodge a series of beams by turning directly upwards however his maneuvers brought them directly into the path of a torpedo rocketing towards them from the other cube. There was a flash of light as the blast spread out over the jet's shields and Creature was surprised to find that he didn't even feel the shockwave of the blast. He didn't put too much thought behind his discovery however due to the sudden flash of three more beams lancing towards the ship. There was nothing Tech could do to avoid the attacks. He had pressed the ship's capabilities to their limit and couldn't do any more than he had. The ship wouldn't go any faster or turn any harder than he already had it doing and the cube's targeting controls had been more than sufficient to keep track of them. And so the series of blast began to strike their little ship more often. Every second or third shot would strike them. Glancing off their shields or only catching them in the edge of their blast radiuses the assaults didn't do much damage however and the little jet continued on it's course to gain entry to one of the cubes. Slowly growing more and more nervous Creature had remained silent as Tech piloted the ship while cursing profusely. Most wouldn't have been able to pilot a ship anywhere near as well as Tech did and even less would be able to do it while coming up with a constant stream of unique and colorful profane statements as he did but the universe's most powerful computer being attached to your mind allows you to multitask in such ways. That didn't comfort Creature however when a small red light began to blink above his head in response to a raking from one of the cubes' shots. "Um hey Tech what's this light?" He asked quietly as the ship threw itself into a new series of nosedives and spins. The universe outside Creature's window spun and twisted so violently that he lost all sense of direction. Had he been on a planet his sense of up and down would have been thrown completely off. However he was not on a planet so there was no up nor down. When another blast hit their ship and Creature actually felt a hint of the shockwave all of his composure went to hell. "WE'RE GONNA DIE!!" he shrieked as Tech did his best to avoid the rest of the enemy attacks. Muttering something about the Borg under his breath Tech took the controls of the ship in his hands and vigorously pulled the twin triggers at the back of his joysticks. Bolts of energy and hyper advanced missiles shot out of several random points on the ship and struck the nearest cube all along one side. The flashes of the discharged weaponry burnt holes into the cube's hull and sent bits of debris flying as they slammed into it. In total the attack didn't do much to the cube but destroy a few inconsequential power relays and bits of hull but the message was clear. The little jet would fight back. Firing blast after blast Tech bit at the nearby cube reducing the outer portion of the hull to a crater filled mess of tangled wires and smoking metal bits. In minutes he would destroy the ship entirely if given the chance but that chance would never come. The second and third cubes turned their attention solely to the little ship and it rocked under the force of their attacks. Lights flashed and those on board were jerked about in their seats as they fought for control of the ship under the onslaught and Creature's quiet questions and nervous burst devolved to incoherent sobs and the occasional yelp. Tech however had not changed his dialogue. He was still muttering the most colorful curses one is ever likely to hear at nobody in particular. The only difference was now he was speaking them much louder. "Alright" he said finally after several minutes of fighting the ship's controls and swearing at any god who would care to listen. "So much for disabling them then boarding... time for Plan B I guess." he said as the ship lurched from yet another blast. Now the environment on board the tiny vessel was more familiar to Creature. He had seen the conditions in enough sci-fi movies to know that when you had bursts of steam and bright flashing lights you had been shot at too much in the recent past. Despite his previous faith in Tech's abilities the ship it seemed was going to be destroyed. After a few brief prayers to nobody in particular Creature finally realized what Plan B was. The jet was heading straight forward toward the earlier weakened ship. They were making no attempt to dodge any more of the Borg attacks and were only on a mad dash straight for the side of the wounded cube. Shots rocked the ship in it's path but Tech's shielding protected it enough for it to remain on course. With it's last shots and it's last bit of fuel the little jet blasted the hull in front of it for everything it was worth. Every iota of reserved power and every ounce of ammunition shot out and dug into the side of the cube as the jet followed them as quickly as it could. Halfway before Creature could say anything his words were drowned out beneath the sound of twenty tonnes of high-tech jet fighter slammed into a wall of alien metals and technologies. I say halfway before he could say anything because he never got to finish what it was he started to say. The only thing that either of them could hear of his comment was "SHHHIIIIII...." and then tearing metal and exploding machinery. As Creature watched what he was sure would be his death coming towards him in the form of countless tonnes of jagged torn metal moving at nearly the speed of light everything suddenly ripped away from him and he found himself surrounded in an orange- gold glow. Outside the glow one could see what was left of the jet rip to pieces and fly away leaving the pilots still moving quite fast but completely unprotected by it's hull. They stopped a few meters away from where the ship ceased to exist as a ship and became a mass of free floating chunks of useless friction-burnt and scarred metal. When the glow receded Creature found himself unharmed and standing aboard a Borg cube. The place was a maze of corridors and Creature couldn't for the life of him determine how one hallway was different from the rest of them. "Thanks Cal" Came Tech's voice from next to him as he turned to look again at the gaping hole they had ripped in the cube. Judging the distance as best as he could Creature guessed that they had punched nearly a quarter mile into the cube and Creature could already see basic repairs being attempted along the length of the hole. "Good to know someone's listening out there" Tech finished as he looked around the cube for the first time. "Well I may not be quite as colorful with my messages as you were but I figured actions speak louder than words right?" came the familiar voice of their omnipathic friend. Without responding Tech smiled and turned to Creature. "Alright now I'll point us in the right direction, you plow us to where we gotta go." he said as he checked a small monitor built in to the metal panel on his wrist. Nodding Creature waited for his directions. "That way" Tech said finally as he pointed off to his left. Without a word Creature began to jog down the corridor Tech had indicated. Before they had gone any more than ten feet however their path was interrupted by at least a dozen drones. Lowering his hands to within his cloak Tech procured two very large, very mean looking guns and opened fire. Crouching low and shifting to a cross between a bull and a lion Creature charged beneath the crossfire of red beams and heavy glowing green bullets that burst forth from Tech's guns. Creature had crossed the distance between himself and the drones before they had even turned to look at him. Slamming into the group of them he went into a frenzy of slashes, kicks and head-butts. Between the furry of his attack and the burst of bullets that Tech had fired the dozen drones had all fallen before they had even fired a shot. Immediately after they fell however the two Anomalies realized the reason for this. The drones will only attack something that they consider a threat. The two of them could have likely walked right past the drones and made it all the way to their destination before they were bothered if they only ignored the drones that they saw. Disregarding this fact they proceeded to make their way towards the power core of the cube. This time however they were assaulted at every turn. Burned by blasts and battered by explosions and cybernetic fisticuffs the two Anomalies forced their way past hundreds of drones ignoring their injuries. Both men had learned long ago that in times of crisis your injuries could wait till later. So they pressed on and on till fatigue began to wear them away as well. Finally, after traveling miles through a drone-filled high-tech maze of corridors, when Tech was running out of ammo and weapons altogether and when Creature's uncanny stamina was finally running out they arrived. Turning one final corner they reached the power core. Stepping up to a control panel that he found at one end Tech extended his wires to link up with the system while Creature moved about the room keeping an eye on all the entrances to the chamber. Eyeing the drones on the walls cautiously he relaxed a bit and walked over towards where Tech stood. At first Creature was convinced the drones would spring to life at any second and continue the attack that others like them had started but Tech assured him that they were in their regeneration cycle. As Creature understood it the regeneration cycle was like sleeping without being able to hear or feel anything. They wouldn't wake until the collective ordered them to which it gave no sign of doing yet. The drones stood still in their places along the walls with the oddly flashing lights flickering behind their heads. As Creature watched them he grew bored and began to allow his fatigue to catch up with him. His shifting had healed any wounds and injuries he had sustained but the effort was taxing. Pressing himself so thoroughly for so long was taking it's toll on him and it showed. He had to rest. It wouldn't take long. His healing abilities would deal with the fatigue once he focused on it but for that he had to stay still and leave himself relatively vulnerable. "There" came Tech's voice suddenly. "I've loaded my virus into their systems. In a coupe of minutes it'll fight past their defenses and take over the ship." he said and at this Creature relaxed further. "Alright you watch then while I catch my breath." Creature said and noted happily as Tech nodded. Leaning up against one wall Creature closed his eyes for a moment and focused on letting his shifting restore his stamina. Before he opened his eyes again a sudden sharp stabbing pain in his neck startled him. Snapping his eyes open he saw the wires pull themselves out of their place in his neck and retract into the wrist of the drone they belonged to. Creature's only thoughts were of how stupid he had been in carelessly leaving the drones to their sleep. And then of pain as the Nano-probes coursed through his veins in their attempts to assimilate him. Yelling out Creature fell to the floor writhing in pain. As he fought to shift around the nanoscopic attackers within his body. Losing ground to the technological assaults within him Creature began to lose consciousness as the probes took control of his body. Implants seemed to construct themselves and burst forth from his body turning him into one of them. Messages of binary and gibberish began to cloud his thoughts as the collective took over his mind. Not slowing to allow his body to heal the particular assimilation was happening at an accelerated rate to make him service-ready as soon as possible. With eyes that were no longer his own Creature looked around the room once more. Climbing to his feet as new implants burst out of his chest and shoulders. He no longer appeared to be a strange man with no shirt. Now he was unmistakably Borg. He had been reborn into the collective and like so many before him his first act as someone reborn was to try to convert someone from his past. He stepped towards Tech with cold blooded mechanical efficiency apparent in his eyes.  
  
Spider was running tired. His moments of peace were short lived and ever since he'd been assaulted by Borg from all directions. Nearly as soon as he had freed himself from the tangled mess of wires and metal more drones appeared in the command center. This time there were dozens of them and this time they came out shooting. Immediately upon their appearance most of the officers fell. The Borg were now able to focus all of their attention on Spider and Sage. Sage who had before been disoriented and left relatively helpless was now back on her feet. Providing shielding for herself with walls of ice and spraying pillars of flame at the drones nearby she managed to defend herself from their attacks and even bring some of them down. She had to set each Borg soldier on fire and keep him burning for several seconds to bring one down however so she couldn't keep it up on her own. Luckily for her she had a handful of armed UED officers within her walls of ice spraying bullets at anything that came near. Luckier still was her wall-crawling, web-slinging ally who happened to be leaping about in the room keeping the Borg occupied. Not so lucky was the fact that there were slightly too many for him to manage. Bounding around the room Spider delivered vicious kicks and punches to every drone he could get near. Those on the receiving end of his attacks flew threw the air colliding with bulkheads, walls, even each other. Few that had been hit by him got up. Those that did he usually hit again. Thus he managed to hold his own against the Borg. When they began to focus their attacks on the ice shelter and those within it however things changed. The ice melted and broke away faster than Sage could restore it and those within it were forced to flee and take shelter elsewhere. Hiding behind bulkheads when they could the soldiers found themselves surrounded and couldn't avoid getting cut down. Most were shot and killed. Some weren't so lucky. The drones moved in on those that they could and assimilated them. Struck by the wires men fell to the ground and lay in agony as the Borg technologies stole their identities. The sight was too much for Sage and things quickly changed temperature. Fire flew from her fingertips and shot outwards incinerating anything that caught her attention. Drones began to fall under her fire faster than before. Organic parts melting away like candle wax the Borg drones fell as lifeless blackened corpses. She even managed to back herself against one wall and force the Borg away to the other side of the room. Now without the fear of being shot in the back she unleashed all the fire she could manage without burning a hole in the station and exposing everyone within to the vacuum outside. Taking care to not burn Spider who was still leaping about among the Borg soldiers she let out shot after shot across the room. In her zeal she hadn't paid enough attention however and didn't notice when one of the fallen soldiers began to move. Raising one arm it trained a pistol on her and silently and efficiently pulled the trigger. It would have been the end of Sage right then had the Anomalies not had a tendency to watch each other's backs. "Look out!" Spider yelled diving across the room to Sage's aid. This time he didn't leap too hard and end up outside. Instead his jump was very controlled and very well timed. This time instead of attacking the assimilated offender he defended his teammate. In the space between one heartbeat and the next it happened. The bullet never struck Sage. Instead it caught Spider between the shoulder blades while he was in mid-dive. With a grunt Spider landed in a heap and slid into the wall. Startled by his dive Sage turned to see what had happened. Seeing the smoking gun and Spider's fallen form. She said nothing. Instead her actions spoke volumes. In less than an instant there was nothing left of the assimilated soldier. Even the gun he had held was nothing more than a melted puddle of metal laying harmlessly on the floor. With her attention turned away from the Borg however she again did not notice that the drones had moved closer to her. They closed in and were too close to her already for her to burn them back. Again though Spider had noticed the danger. His uncanny spider sense gave him a knack for such things and even if the bullet had pierced his costume he would have responded the same way. Rising to his feat and diving into the Borg's path he forcibly threw them back. He hit the drones then harder than he had ever hit anything in his life. And those that he hit did not get up. However in his stubbornness he did not move from the path of the danger he sensed and instead allowed the series of blasts to strike him. Shielding Sage from the beams he fell again this time with the majority of his costume burned away. Now only his mask, pants and one glove remained intact. Each defined by burns where they had been separated from the rest of his costume in oblivion. It happened before Sage could even turn around. As she spun she only saw the flash of the beams and Spider fall again. Pausing on his knees he began to fall forward but caught himself with his hands. Pushing himself again from the floor he raised his arms and sprayed the entire contents of his web-shooters into the mass of Borg soldiers. Spread too thin the webbing was not enough to stop them. With their beams they burned the webbing away and weakened the web enough for them to rip through it. Marching towards the two Anomalies the Borg no longer shot. They saw no need. At their range the woman could not use fire against them and the masked one seemed barely able to stand. He surprised them however yet again when he dove forward and tackled three of them. Landing in a tangle of limbs Spider and the drones twisted about in a flurry of punches and twists. It would appear to onlookers, very similar to your average schoolyard fist-fight. And despite the severe injuries and the greater enemy numbers he came up first and he came up swinging. Keeping the three drones pinned to the floor with repeated blows from his fists he was too tired when the other drones swarmed in upon him. Barely able to put up a fight at all he managed a few weak elbows and punches as the mass of cyborg overwhelmed him. Striking him into submission and pinning his arms the Borg assimilated him before Sage's eyes. The stingers of one of the drones reached out and pierced the flesh of his shoulder. With the sound of his scream they released him to fall to the ground. Backing up Sage was horrified. She had never imagined she would see anything so horrible. Not only had she seen a close friend die but she was also faced with the same fate herself. The Borg dropped Spider's body like a bag of dirt and turned again to Sage. Marching forward in unison they closed in on her and there was nothing she could do about it. If there was one or two she could maybe freeze them but there were eight. At best she would be able to spread out her cold wave and slow them. Or she could freeze two or maybe three of them as the others marched forward. At least then she'd go down fighting. She didn't do either. Instead her humanity caught up with her and her bravery failed. Sage stood terrified as so many had before her. Like so many before her she was paralyzed with fear as the Borg approached her. Unlike them however she was still being defended. Somehow Spider had regained his feet. As the Borg technologies coursed through his veins he rushed forward in silent agony. His determination to die before his friends were harmed was such that even the unimaginable pain of having his insides ripped up by nano probes was not enough to stop him. He caught the rush of drones a meter away from sage throwing them aside and striking wherever he could. Weakened as he was however he could not slay the drones. Staggering them and even disabling one of them he struck them with everything he could. It wasn't enough. They shot him again before two seconds had passed. Falling to his knees as their beams took effect he succumbed to his fate and fell. As Sage watched in horror Spider's eyes searched for her. Finally finding her she saw his last ounce of strength leave him as the machines within took his soul. She stood petrified as his expression changed to the last one it would ever show. It was fear. He was afraid he had failed. Again the drones turned their attention away from him as his eyes glazed over and he slumped forward. Again they marched towards her and again she could not make herself move. They would claim her just as they did Spider.  
  
Ensign Daniel Beattie watched as the machine things reached towards the white robed woman who had helped them. The same snaking wires that he had seen stab into his comrades was reaching out of one of their wrists towards her. They would turn her into one of those things. He wouldn't allow that. Standing up from behind the counter he had take cover behind he raised his rifle, aimed and fired. As he fired the lights went out casting the mess hall into pith blackness. Outside another blast had gotten past Inferno and Psyche and drained away more of the ships power systems. Not allowing the distraction to take away his focus he continued firing. The stream of bullets struck the drone that reached towards her. Organic bits spraying about the drone fell with the majority of it's head missing. The woman shot a panicked look across the room towards him and seeing her opportunity took it. Rolling to the side she scrambled to her feet as Ensign Beattie and the others behind the counter opened fire upon the distracted Borg. Running and diving over the counter as the flash of gunfire lit up the room Wraith found herself laying upon piles of spent shells and discarded weaponry. There were guns and ammunition of all types laying about her and there were even a collection of grenades and knives. She didn't think the knives would do much good against the Borg but perhaps the grenades might. Thinking back she tried desperately to remember how far this room was from the outside of the station. As she thought about it she was fairly certain that there were at least a dozen rooms in every direction. She hoped it would be enough. Already the Borg were forcing their way closer. Already soldiers fell against them as they forced their way past the bullets. Reaching out towards the grenades she had made her decision. Grenades were her only choice. Grabbing two of them she pulled them towards herself. As she tried to get her feet beneath her. The shift of weight however moved a knife she hadn't noticed and a sudden sharp pain in her ribs caused her to yell out. She had landed on a knife and her knee drove it into her. She cursed as blood began to leak from her side. Setting one of the grenades down at her feet she carefully gripped the handle of the knife. Before she could attempt to pull it out a strong grip caught her arm and held her in place. Startled she looked up to see the man who had saved her from the Borg soldier that tried to assimilate her. Gently he grasped the knife and pulled it from her side. Blood poured more freely as the knife was removed and the man silently ripped off a large section of cloth from his uniform. Tearing it into strips while the deafening sound of dozens of powerful guns went off all around them the man quickly and efficiently bandaged the wound. Once he had done that he silently stooped down to pick up a pair of guns identical to those she had dropped in her scramble to avoid assimilation. Afterwards with a nod he turned to tend to another who had fallen behind him. The man had been shot in the shoulder and was burned severely. As the soldiers did what they could for each other Wraith again reached for the grenades. Cursing under her breath she gripped the pins in her teeth as she stood. Pulling them free of the grenades she quickly pulled back and lobbed the grenades into the middle of the group of drones. Ducking down again as beams burned the air above her she covered her ears in a cartoonish display of bracing herself. The sound wasn't as loud as she expected but the results were the same. The borg had been blown to bits. Their bodies had been tossed to each side like toys discarded by an angry child (an angry child, that is, who happened to be able to lift, burn and throw at least a dozen 300 pound cybernetic toys hard enough to slam them into walls and break them). When she moved to see what had happened to the drones the lights conveniently flickered to life again. Slowly climbing over the counter she stepped towards the middle of where the drones had been. There in the floor was a large gaping hole. Looking down below she caught sight of yet another battle being fought. Turning to make sure the soldiers in the mess hall were alright on her own a beam of energy narrowly missed her. Ripping past her shoulder Wraith dove in the opposite direction. Landing on her side she yelped as pain shot out from her wound. carelessly rolling to move her weight off of the knife wound she suddenly found herself falling. She had rolled right into the hole she had made with the grenades. Landing on her back she grunted and her vision blurred. Pain rocketed out across her body as she attempted to look around. She managed a look however, as little as it availed her she looked around the new room she had found herself within. It was some sort of gymnasium or meeting hall. Scattered across it were fallen human soldiers and Borg drones. The drones turned their attention away from the assimilated humans and towards her. The nearest caught her in the shoulder before she could make herself move. Twin sharp stabbing pains made themselves clear in her shoulder as she looked to see a Borg drone remove it's wires from her flesh. As the wires disappeared within the drone's wrist Wraith began to feel the pain of assimilation. In seconds she had lost consciousness.  
  
Tank's situation had gotten decidedly worse. The drones had managed to access a few of the systems and had tampered with the environmental controls. The artificial gravity on Tank's deck had been removed entirely and he found himself having to hold on to something just to keep his feet on the ground. The drones couldn't hurt him but now he couldn't stop them either. Apparently magnetized to the metal floor they marched again towards the power core. Pushing himself off of the wall he had been holding he tackled three drones and dragged them with him into the opposite wall. Slamming them into the wall and reducing them to useless bits in the process he turned to make another pass. Instead he found he was already too late. Three drones had reached the core and were linked to it. Already as Tank dove to stop them the power went out entirely. Nothing was left but life support as the guns on the outside of the station turned towards the two Anomalies who had been outside. What's worse was Frenzy had awoken. Teeth of bone and rock ripped through the metal plating that had shielded him and he floated free. Slowly spinning in a ball in the middle of the air Tank saw the beams light up the room as they burned towards him. Striking him from all sides Frenzy was caught again by surprise and again lost consciousness. Floating limply Tank watched as a drone caught one of his legs and punctured his side with his wires. By the slight illumination the power core still provided Tank could see the wires retract after a moment and the drone release Frenzy's leg. He had failed to protect the power core and he had failed to protect his teammate. His mission had already failed all he had left was anger. A green glow appeared on either side of his head as his shoulder-cannons hummed to life. No longer did he care if he put holes in the walls. No longer did he care if he damaged the station. The Borg had hurt his friend and they would pay. As the turrets hummed to life a sort of humorless grin spread across Tank's face when the hum reached its peak there was a flash and the world seemed to explode. Lancing out from his turrets, twin blasts of the green energy screamed across the room. Burning through three drones who stood in its path the blasts finally crashed into the far wall. Lined with high tech devices of various purposes the wall exploded with enough force to knock every drone in the room flat on their faces. Tank who was not anchored to anything was also sent flying by the blast. Unable to stop or slow himself and unwilling to even try he flew through the air and slammed into the opposite wall. Crushing into it the high tech equipment and high density metal could barely stop him in his path. Crushing into the machines and damaging the equipment beyond repair. It stopped him however and from his position temporarily pinned to the wall he could see that the blasts hadn't stopped with just the one wall. Bursting through the other side Tank could see the green bolts of energy explode through at least four more walls. Undeterred by the meager steel walls and random machinery the bolts punched through everything in their path till they reached the void beyond. There was a pause as the rooms were suddenly exposed to the harsh vacuum of space. It didn't last long however and before Tank could react he found himself pulled free of the wall he had slammed into. Air rushed past him at speed in it's futile attempt to fill the empty space beyond the walls and it dragged nearly everything in the rooms with it. With all his might Tank found himself sucking in air as he was pulled outward into the void. With all his strength he fought the depressurization of the station in an attempt to get a good breath in him. Had he been a normal human his efforts wouldn't have even been notable. Being Tank however meant he was far from normal. His lungs, like every other part of him were strong enough to make probability and expectations seem like the drug induced suggestions of a raving derelict. Due to his strength he managed to catch his breath and hold it. Still however he was left with the problem of being sucked into space. Rushing past all the other debris and the airborne drones he whipped through the room towards the unwanted opening in the station's hull. Reacting as fast as he was capable he reached out and grasped for anything he could get his hands on. Nothing could hold him however as his twelve hundred pounds of organic metal whipped past at incredible speed. Anything he did manage to catch hold of ripped free of its moorings and flew for the breach along with him. Through three holes he flew catching a handful of wall each time and each time awarded nothing but a fistful of steel coming loose. Finally however he found something that held. The outer hull of the ship. Catching the side of the hole he held on as tightly as he dared to without fearing that his fingers would crush the metal and tear it loose accidentally. Holding onto the station's hull with one hand he watched as the drones and other debris began to catch up to him. Watching intently he saw machinery and crushed drones fly past him and float free in the harsh void. Soon after the first drones began to pass him. Having fought all the way as well they had slowed themselves considerably but could not resist the force of the vacuum any more than he could. Nor could they resist it as well as he did it seemed as they were launched into space to die silently, floating out to space frozen and asphyxiated. Watching all this Tank waited holding his breath behind clenched teeth. Then finally he saw what he was looking for. A drone. But one drone in particular. It was frenzy. The first implants had already began to sprout forth from his flesh and the brownish grey color of his bone-like shell had already lost color and turned pale. Unconscious and still the assimilated Frenzy made no effort to resist the pull of the wind and flew unhindered towards the breach in the hull. Unhindered that is, until he reached Tank. Reaching out at the last second Tank snatched onto one of Frenzy's legs and held on tight. His vice-like grip not at all challenged by the force of the wind he held Frenzy there and waited. After a few seconds that seemed like hours the wind stopped. With no air left in the exposed decks of the space station there was no more wind. No longer pulled at Tank easily managed to pull himself back into the station. With no gravity to hold him down he could only push off of walls or any machinery that hadn't been sucked out in order to move himself around. Trying desperately to recall the path he had taken to enter the engineering room in the first place he attempted to retrace those steps to get back into the relatively safe environment of the rest of the station. Spurred on by the limp form of Frenzy held under one arm and by the tingle in his muscles cause by the absence of fresh air in his system he didn't have much time to think. Pushed to his limits his lungs began to burn. Kicking desperately off of walls to propel himself he left a trail of huge dents in walls and overturned equipment. With Frenzy in tow Tank moved as swiftly as he ever had before. Shadows fluttered at the corners of his vision as his thoughts became cloudy. Every muscle in his body ached and his lungs urged him to open his mouth and breath in. Wanting nothing more than fresh air in his lungs Tank could hardly resist the urge to do just that. His mind however prevented him. No matter what his body said he knew that there was no air to be had and that opening his mouth would mean sure death. Turning one last corner he saw what he was looking for. The heavy steel blast doors at the end of the corridor insured Tank that he had finally found the right path. Kicking off of one wall and guiding himself along with his one free hand he moved for the door as quickly as he could. Reaching the door he paid no attention to the security panel at the side of it. Instead he placed one palm against the door and applied pressure. The door yielded to his pressuring and dented in slowly. With all the care he had time to put into it Tank began to slide his hand upwards. Spots appeared in front of his eyes and his vision had become nothing more than a blur. However his efforts began to show their success. The heavy blast doors had slid into place from above when the hull had breached. Sealing the exposed section of the station off from the rest of it The doors could only be opened by using the correct password on the panel to Tank's left. Unless of course you were willing to open the door with brute force and had enough in your possession to do just that. Forced back up in it's tracks the door slid open and the air on the other side rushed out to meet him. Ignoring the repelling force of the wind, Tank pulled himself through the doorway. Once through, with Frenzy still under one arm he reached up and grabbed at the door. Catching hold of it he yanked it downwards, hard. Stripping the heavy gears that moved it the door slid downwards once more and slammed into position once more blocking the corridor. Finally collapsing Tank allowed himself to open his mouth. Allowed the air within to burst free of him. Gasping for breath he filled his lungs and waited as the shadows disappeared. His vision returned to him and the ache in his muscles began to fade. Raising himself from the floor to his knees he allowed his armored form to retract. Organic once more he quickly checked Frenzy's still from. Laying there next to him Tank checked his pulse and listened for breathing. He heard none. Frenzy was dead. Tank had killed him.  
  
There was nothing Sage could do. She watched held perfectly still by her fear as the drones advanced on her. Even if she could make herself move she was already boxed in by them. And her powers would do nothing to stop them even if she could make herself try. Stopping no more than a foot from her on of the drones reached out. It's arm stopped inches from her face and the wires extended from it's wrist. She looked past the wires, directly into the drone's eyes. There she found herself looking into the drone's lifeless eyes. They betrayed no emotion, no hesitation, no remorse. The betrayed nothing as the drone moved to take her. She didn't even manage a scream as the wires stretched out towards her. In her mind she could already feel the pain of the wires piercing her. She imagined the feeling of millions of tiny machines spreading through her bloodstream and cutting away all of her that was human. In seconds she knew she would lose consciousness. She knew there was no hope. And then it seemed she was wrong. Behind the backs of the drones the view-screen exploded. Ripped apart by an unseen force the entire wall seemed to peel itself open exposing the command center to the harshness of space. Instantly the drones were swept from their feet and thrown into the void. The assimilated bodies of the soldiers that lay about the room were thrown out as well. Everything that wasn't nailed down was ripped out into space with the exception of Spider and Sage. Somehow Sage didn't get pulled at by the vacuum. Somehow she couldn't even feel the winds as they ripped everything away. Looking down to Spider's motionless form she could see no sign of the wind's affects on him either. Confused at this Sage remained still. She didn't dare move for fear of the winds somehow noticing her. Shifting her eyes she looked up into the hole where the view-screen used to be. What she saw there made her finally understand. It was Psyche. Floating in the gaping hole was Psyche. She watched in silence as he floated into the room. She said nothing as the hole seemed to pull itself closed under the pressure of his will. She understood that it was Psyche that had saved her but still she couldn't react. Landing silently Psyche quickly stooped over Spider's form. There was a pause as he checked his friend for signs of life. Checked his injuries to see what he could do to help. Reaching one hand out to the side he pointed, still looking down at Spider. Following his point with her gaze a first aid kit was fastened to the wall near the entrance to the room. As she watched a slight orange glow appeared around the box and it seemed to open all on it's own. As it opened several items floated free and silently made their way over to Spider's still form. Some sort of first aid spray can and gauze cleaned Spider's injuries under the manipulations of Psyche's mind. Immediately upon being cleaned his form lifted gently up into the air and bandages wrapped themselves around his cuts. In seconds Psyche had treated all of his allies injuries as best he could with the medical supplies at hand. And slowly he set Spider back down on the floor. "That's the best I can do Sage, your abilities should help him more than I can." As he said this Psyche looked up at her for the first time. Instantly a look of concern spread across his familiar features and he rose to his feet. Without realizing it Sage had begun to fall forward. Making no effort to stop regain her balance of brace herself for the fall she simply collapsed forward. Psyche quickly stepped into her path and caught her before she hit the ground. Holding her in his arms he gently lowered her to the floor and began to check to see what was wrong. "Sage what happened? What's wrong?" he asked urgently as her eyelids began to flutter and close. Her muscles went limp and she made no effort to respond. Unable to speak, Sage had one last thought before she lost consciousness. Something had bit her neck.  
  
Tech was left with few options. In seconds his entire plan had fallen apart. Creature had been taken and he Tech was given no opportunity to finish his work. He had put his virus into the Borg cube's system and given time it would probably disable the ship but he didn't have that kind of time. If things had gone as planned he would have loaded all seven of the viruses he had prepared into key systems on board the ship. Had he done that the viruses would have spread not only throughout this cube but to the other two and any others within long distance scanning range. Any borg ship within Light-years of the station would have been thrown into chaos. Their connection with the collective would be severed and their orders would be reversed. They would be destroying themselves in the chaos and the ships would fall. Having put up no more of a fight. At the same time all of the technologies would shut themselves down. Each individual nano-probe would be deactivated when exposed to Tech's virus and it would leave the drones powerless and the Cube's unmanned. However things had not gone as planned. Nowhere in Tech's plan did he consider Creature being assimilated. Nowhere in his plans did he think of what to do if the borg drone that Creature had become attacked him. Now he was left to improvise. Tech didn't like to improvise. The computer that constantly worked along side his brain could come up with a plan to solve almost anything. It could generate designs for almost any device imaginable. However when faced with problems that involved improvising there was no planning. He simply had to react. Leaping to the side he narrowly avoided one of Techno-Creatures cybernetic fists. Twisting in midair he pulled from his cloak a type of personal plasma cannon. It was a weapon of his own design and resembled nothing so much as a shotgun. Instead of bullets however this device fired high density bolts of super heated plasma. At nearly five thousand degrees Celsius the bolt struck Creature in the small of his back. The force of the impact sent him staggering forward and the blast itself seemed melted a hole right through him. Watching in horror Tech saw his assimilated ally regain his balance and turn. The gaping hole in his torso seemed to close upon itself as his flesh poured down to fill the gap. Almost instantly the hole was gone and only seconds after that the borg implants had replaced themselves. Creature did not wait for the injury to heal completely. As soon as he had regained his balance he moved again to strike Tech down. This time his blow landed and sent Tech sprawling onto his back. Stopping down to grab him Creature seemed caught off guard by Tech's boots. Baring back and kicking him as hard as he could Tech slammed both his feet into Creature's face. Thrown from his feet Creature landed heavily on his back and immediately began to rise to his feet. Rolling to his side Tech as well scrambled to regain his feet. Beating Creature to a standing position he again reached into his cloak for a new weapon. Finding nothing he raised his plasma cannon once more. Bringing it to bear and firing it the blast hit Creature directly in the collar bone. Having made no effort to dodge the blast seemed to splash off of Creature's flesh and did no harm whatsoever. He had adapted. Cursing something about marsupial nipples Tech aimed the gun away from Creature and fired it several times into the ceiling above him. The first to shots exploded into the ceiling causing a large section of ceiling and debris above to come crashing down upon the assimilated Creature. Satisfied for the moment that Creature was immobilized he turned to come face to face with more drones. These however didn't threaten him nearly as much and only managed to startle him. Reaching out instantly to assimilate him the drones were dispatched by the butt of Tech's plasma cannon. He didn't bother checking to see if they were down. He simply brought the weapon down upon their heads with all the force his cybernetically enhanced muscles could muster. Falling limply to the floor, the drones fell bludgeoned to death. Without hesitation Tech stepped over their bodies and moved to the control panel again. Slinging the gun over his shoulder he accessed the ship's systems through the controls and began to hack away in order to load the other viruses he had planned into the cube's system. Not at the panel for any longer than ten seconds Tech found himself again assaulted by Creature. He cursed as he realized that he had underestimated his ally's strength. And attempted to roll with the force of the blow as he was struck hard in the side of his head. Landing hard he tucked into a roll and sprung to his feet. In his mind the computer was playing warnings of the damage the blow had caused and also told him that more drones were approaching through one of the corridors to his left. Quickly giving commands to begin repairing the damage he reached again for his rifle. Grasping at air he realized it had fallen out of place. Quickly looking around the room he searched the floor for it. Finally locating his weapon he looked up to find Creature directly in his path. Saying nothing he bared back and struck his friend as hard as he could in the face. Barely reacting to the blow at all Creature shot out and struck Tech in return. Unlike Creature however Tech reacted. Staggering under the force of his blows he fell onto his back and lay there stunned. Tech's mind was racing. His only choice seemed to be run away. He couldn't fight. He was out muscled, out gunned and out numbered by the borg and was given no time to out think them. Cursing at the thought of running from a fight Tech realized he had no choice. Rolling to the side and rising to his feet he broke into a run. Turning into a the nearest corridor he quickly disappeared from view and was again lost in the maze of hallways that made up the borg cube. Turning constantly to avoid the active drones his scanners told him were looking for him Tech had actually managed to avoid them for quite a while before he was caught. Running down a corridor past several regenerating drones his computer suddenly flared to life with warnings. The drones were waking up. Stepping out of their positions and into his path the drones had cut him off. Turning to run he watched as more drones stepped into his path at the other end of the corridor. He was trapped. Reaching to his side he removed two new weapons he had constructed while he ran. They were made specifically to combat borg. Their energy types shifted and changed frequencies with every shot and the only thing that stayed the same about the blasts was the deadly force contained in them. Not knowing whether the blasters would work he pulled them free anyway. And without a word raised them and opened fire. The drones in front of him fell one after another but as they did, more stepped around the corner to keep him trapped in. Gunning them down one after another Tech began to feel satisfied that his guns would work forever. The random pattern they fired in seemed beyond the Borg's ability to adapt. However as soon as he felt it the feeling was washed away by more warnings from his internal computer. His guns were running out of power. Despite himself Tech actually laughed. This was just his luck, he thought as something new made it's attempt to make things worse. A drone had somehow managed to cross the distance between itself and Tech. Moving up behind him the drone silently extended it's wires and reached them out to bite into Tech's neck. In an instant hundreds of thousands of Nano-probes spread through his system already determined to take over his body. He could feel the probes attaching themselves to his technological implants. He could feel them spread and begin their attempts to alter his organs. He could already feel himself being assimilated.  
  
Things had gotten bad. Chris knew it in his gut. Almost immediately the drones had adapted to his abilities and he was left with no way to fight them. Instead he had been playing defense. Intercepting the blasts that shot forth from the cubes' weapons systems and absorbing them himself he managed to protect the station that held his friends. However it had been going on for too long. Psyche, who was outside the station with Chris had suddenly turned and left. A brief message from Psyche erupted in Inferno's mind telling him that something was wrong. As though he needed to be told. In any case from his point of view there weren't any big problems. He had stopped the worst of the Borg attacks and had gotten the hang of intercepting their blasts. Now the cubes had even slowed their assaults in an attempt to either deal with other problems or to gather time to think up a new strategy. Inferno had seen the altered Wraith piloted by his friends Tech and Creature. Watched as it crashed into one of the cubes and was destroyed on impact. This was cause for concern but he was told that they were okay by Psyche and he had no reason to think his friend was Lying. They were still alive and they were onboard the borg ship which was their plan. The signs of damage that Inferno expected however had not yet come. There were no explosions or circuits frying. Or at least there weren't any that he could see. In fact their were no signs at all of their sabotage's success. This concerned the glowing energy filled man named Inferno who might let you call him Chris if you know him real well. It concerned him so much that he found himself watching the cube instead of keeping his full attention on protecting the station. Growing impatient he called out with his mind. While he was in no way telepathic Inferno, like the other Anomalies had grown accustomed to telepathy by association with Cal. He had learned to direct his thoughts so that Psyche would detect them and know to listen. This time he didn't. Calling out to be updated on the situation he gained no response. Now more than impatient, now he was afraid. Never before had Psyche ignored his call. Inferno could not imagine any situation that would prevent his friend from hearing him either. "What's going on in there?!?" Inferno screamed inside his head making no attempt to hide his fear for his friends. When the answer came it hit him like a sledgehammer. In obvious distress Psyche had not focused on holding back his thoughts like usual. Instead he let the full force of his despair stretch outwards, raging in the minds of everyone alive enough to hear it. Inferno's head pounded under the force of the unintentional mental attack. He could feel the pressure behind his eyes of the sheer psionic force threatening to tear his mind apart. If the situation were different Inferno might have marveled at how much power Psyche really had. Pondered the affects of having such a powerful mind and always having to fight to keep it within his skull. Instead of wondering such things however he found himself shaken by the words behind the despair. "THEY'RE DEAD!" came the telepathic voice thundering in his mind. And then there was silence. As if the flow of psionic energy that had been pressuring his skull had suddenly vanished altogether, Inferno found himself in silence. His own thoughts had even paused as the shock of it all sunk in. "Who?" came a whispered question within his mind. He couldn't even tell if he had said it, or thought it in the right way, or even thought it at all. The question was simply there. After a second he repeated it. This time making sure he projected the question properly. "Who Cal? Who's Dead?" he thought urgently and then suddenly he knew. It seemed that the knowledge flashed into his head before the words entered his mind. "Spider... Frenzy..." visions of his friends danced before his eyes as he willed the words to stop. They didn't "Sage" the voice said and Inferno could hardly contain his emotion. He hoped that Psyche wasn't monitoring his mind. Hoped, as horrible as the thought was, that his friend was to distressed to be paying attention. He hoped this because in his heart he knew that no mortal should feel what he felt then. Sage? Telli? Chantal?... Dead? Thousands of questions whipped through his mind. "How?" being the most prominent. And answers came all of their own. Grotesque images of his teammates corpses danced within his brain drowning out all else. Everything was a blur of intense hatred and fear. Nothing could be heard within his mind. Even if Psyche had been listening he wouldn't have been able to catch even a single word or picture conjured up by Inferno's mind. Instead all he would have found was a wave of confusion and despair. And then it all became clear. "The Borg" he thought. Inferno's mind had, in an instant changed from a storm of chaotic thoughts and emotions to a crystal clear window through which only one thing could be seen. The borg. They were responsible for what had happened to his friends. They were responsible for what had happened to Sage. Afterwards Chris would find himself surprised at the strength of his feelings for her. He had never realized that he thought of her as more than another one of his teammates. Now however there was not room for such things. There was only room for revenge. His energies exploded outward with a force even he could not have known. The burn that surrounded him grew larger and brighter than ever before. Those within the station could see the glow even through the thick metal of their hull. Had anyone been outside with Inferno their eyelids would not have been nearly protection enough from the blinding light that radiated from his burning form. To say he was like a star would be ludicrous. No star in the universe had ever been as bright, nor had any had even a fraction of the energy that burned within him then. No, he was no star. He was Inferno of the Anomalies. He was Chris Shirreff, friend and teammate to those who had fallen. And more importantly, he was pissed.  
  
As soon as she had stumbled forward Psyche knew what had happened. Catching her effortlessly he lowered her to the ground next to Spider and examined what he already knew to be the cause of her sudden affliction. Raising the severed wires from the floor on which they had landed he focused all his force into senselessly crushing the assimilation devices. Although such an action did not serve any purpose it was still impressive nonetheless. The two small tubes had crumpled in on themselves under the force of his will and collapsed into nothingness. The result would have been a massive implosion that likely would have destroyed the rest of the station if he had not contained it with his will. Immeasurable telekinetic force cocooned around the space in which the tubes had been and smothered the blast. When it was safely extinguished he let the telekinetic bubble disappear. From the point of view of anyone else in the command center it would have appeared that the tubes had simply vanished. Ignoring all this as he examined his friends he began to feel the first signs of panic take hold. "They're Dead!" he thought carelessly, not holding back his thoughts as he should have. After only a second he gathered his wits again. Stupid Psyche thought. You keep letting your thoughts slip like that and you'll do more harm than good. Besides, Psyche didn't really know if they were actually dead. And even if they were didn't necessarily mean that they were beyond help. Not yet at least. Finding that thought and clinging to it his mind raced. What could he do? How could he help? How could he save his friends? And then it came to him. He had his plan. Not much of a plan really, just a thought conjured up by a desperate, frightened, panicky mind but he would run with it nonetheless. He would act to fulfill this "plan" with as much determination as it was possible to possess. All he needed was to find a Drone.  
  
Up until this moment it had been a routine day for the captain. His ship had been on its way back to a nearby deep space station after a brief diplomatic mission dealing with Romulans. They were a few days away from the station when they got lost. It wasn't under normal circumstances that they were lost. Under normal circumstances a federation ship would never be lost in this sector. It was too well known and too often traveled. No the circumstances weren't normal. Not for this particular captain anyway. While Captain Daniel Beattie of the U.S.S. Avenger has had his share of experiences he wasn't as accustomed to unusual space phenomenon as some of the other captains he could name. This was definitely the most unusual phenomenon he had encountered. Within his ready room the captain had been writing his daily reports when suddenly there was a great flash of light. The flash did not seem to come from any of the light fixtures within the room, nor did it come from anything else he could identify. It simply seemed that for one second the his world was filled with a blinding white light. When it receded and his office returned to normal he paused to consider his words before tapping on the com badge he wore. Tapping gently on the ornately designed Starfleet insignia he paused before he spoke the words he needed. "Beattie to Bridge" he said and waited for a response. "Bridge here captain" came the familiar voice responding to his call. At this the captain paused. He didnt quite know how to phrase it. After a moment he continued cautiously "did anyone else see that?" "Yes sir" the voice responded. "We're already trying to figure out what it was sir but ..." "But? But what?" the captain pressed. "But it seems our scanners are malfunctioning." the bridge lieutenant answered. "Whatever that flash was it scrambled our nav and scan systems." he said. The captain considered this for a moment. "How long till we can have them back?" he asked "umm sir they're back" the lieutenant said. "What?" the captain asked. "The scrambled systems. I'm looking at my console and they've all just blinked back up. It seems we're fully functional again." after another pause the captain spoke again. "Find out what happened. If you cant figure it out by the time we get docked then I'll have to order a full manual ship diagnostic before setting out again. I don't want to do that lieutenant. Understand?" "Yes sir came the immediate response and the captain tapped his badge to end the communication. Pondering for a moment he rose from his seat and walked over to the starboard wall activating the replicator installed there. "Coffee, black" he said and an instant later a cup of coffee had materialized before him. Removing the cup from the replicator the captain turned to again sit at his desk when his badge beeped. "Bridge to captain Beattie" the lieutenant's voice said. Tapping his badge the captain responded not bothering to hide his annoyance. It was late, he was tired and his logs had to be completed. This new event was not a welcome one. "What is it lieutenant?" he asked. "Sir we have a problem" "What? Did the systems scramble again?" The captain asked. "No sir the systems are fine... its just that ...." "What?" the captain demanded getting more annoyed by the second. "We seem to be a ways off course sir." the lieutenant said. "Well get back on course and leave me be for once." the captain snapped. Tapping his badge to end transmission. After a second he tapped it again and spoke. This time more calmly. "Lieutenant?" the captain asked. "Yes sir?" came the response. "How far off course are we?" "I don't know sir... wherever we are it's not on any charts or maps in our database." the lieutenant informed him. "We're lost?" the captain asked incredulous. "Yes sir that appears to be the case. And sir? There's one more thing." "What's that?" the captain asked. "About a lightyear from our position there seems to be a severe energy storm... our readings cant identify it but the power levels are off the scale." the lieutenant paused as if uncertain of the truth of his own words. "According to our scans there seems to be at least 3 ships trapped in the middle of it. We cant read for certain but we're picking up life-forms in the storm." the captain answered evenly no longer annoyed. "Wake all senior officers and inform them of the situation. Set a course for the energy disturbance... I'll be right up." with that the captain tapped his badge one last time, set down his coffee on the table, turned, adjusted his uniform and walked out of the room. Turning towards the nearest turbo-lift he began making his way to the bridge. The captain had no clue what was going on. Whatever it was however, he was resolved to find out.  
  
When Spider awoke he was no longer in control. The pain of his injuries had numbed him. The pain of his assimilation however was still terribly intense. He tried to scream but couldn't. His vocal chords would not obey him. He tried to raise his arms to his face but couldn't. His muscles wouldn't obey him either. Spider tried to think. Tried to remember what was happening to him but he couldn't. He couldn't remember anything except the pain. His own name was gone. He no longer existed. Suddenly a new feeling came to him. The feeling of something in his head. It was disturbing... What was left of Spider's consciousness was terrified by the presence within his mind. Then he heard the voices. They spoke within his mind with a horrifying efficiency. There were no words. The voices spoke in numbers and code. They seemed to communicate in sheer meaning without the weak inefficiency of needing words. The voices filled his mind drowning out all else. They would swallow him whole in seconds. There was nothing he could do. But then he felt it again. The presence in his mind. It was another voice. Not like the cold voices that filled him but different. Far quieter and infinitely warmer the voice spoke in words. The words entered Spider's mind slowly and meant nothing to him. He could not think of the words. The colder voices within him drowned out any thoughts he had of responding. But still he heard the voice. The words. They teased him, vaguely familiar yet so unknown. "Spider are you alright?" they said. "Spider can you hear me?" Suddenly, unbidden his eyes snapped open. It was not his command that opened them but the command of the voices. Looking out through his own eyes like the drugged passenger of some alien vehicle Spider could not recognize the things he saw. The lights, the colors, the shapes. All of them were meaningless to him. His memories stripped away, his thoughts drowned out, all by the voices. As his body rose from it's place on the floor his mind fell away within. Battered and beaten by the collective, both mind and body were tired but the voices did not relent. They commanded his body and at the same time tried to swallow his mind. Instinctively he tried to resist but he couldn't there were too many voices. He was too tired. Within the environment of his own mind he found himself falling away into nothing. Too tired to resist the cold voices would claim him. Then something clicked. "Spider?" the warm voice spoke within his head. the realization found him finally. He was Spider. Something was calling to him. Once the meaning of the words had found him the other things started flowing back. Memories flooded through his mind. His home, his family, his friends. Events repeated themselves in his mind. Memories of the day his world had changed. The transformation that he and his friends had undergone without explanation. The powers he received. The adventures he had. Finally he remembered what was happening. The Borg. They had been on a space station, the Borg had attacked. They tried to hurt his friend... he struggled to remember more. Fought to catch hold of the memories whipping about within his head. Spider had fought to protect his friend. Had been blasted... beaten... assimilated. Then all he could remember was the pain. There as so much pain. The voices ripped him apart inside. The controlled his body already. They were trying to assimilate his mind. He was letting them. Something within him was outraged. "NO!" it thought. "I won't allow it!" it came and suddenly Spider found his mind again whole. His mind had gone somewhere new within him. He looked about with eyes made of thought. Looked down at a body made entirely of dream. It was his view of himself that he saw. It was his manifestation within the astral plain Instead of the tattered costume he had been wearing he wore a simple suede jacket and a thin light sleeve shirt. Instead of the skintight costume that he had been wearing he wore light khakis with cargo pockets and a pair of beaten up old sneakers. Someone... Callahan had told him of this once. It was the realm of pure imagination. Where thought was real. The realm of telepaths and sorcerers. A place where those with powerful minds to travel outside there bodies. A place where the blind could see, where the crippled could walk. A place where a desperate mind could make it's last stand. Some force had brought him here. Something familiar yet unknown. The voice. Again realization found Spider. "Psyche" he thought and the words echoed through the entire world. The name spread out like a solid wave and filled the plain. For a time it was all Spider could hear. The name he had spoken had grown outward and taken on a form. A mere thought had become solid. Then he heard other sounds. Footsteps. Spider tried to turn around but found that he didn't know how. He tried to send thought commands to muscles he was no longer in command of. He tried to move arms and legs that didn't exist. He was paralyzed by his own lack of knowledge. How do you control a body that doesn't exist? Pushing his commands harder he still had no success. Then giving up on trying to turn around he found himself turning. Looking about he surveyed the world around him. It was a park. Trees and bushes and a variety of other plants were growing all about the place in between asphalt paths and small open fields of well managed grass. Stopping suddenly Spider was perplexed. How had he done that? How had he moved? Stopping all thought he tried something new. Instead of willing himself to move he tried desiring to. Wishing he would move instead of trying to he found himself taking steps. At last he understood. The act of walking was impossible here. You cannot move arms and legs to take steps when you did not have arms or legs. He was simply consciousness floating about in a landscape of dream. He began to understand that everything he saw was a creation of his mind. The park was a recreation of one near his home. Every tree, every bush, every blade of grass was a figment of his imagination. To do things he had to will himself to do them. Instead of desiring to move his body he had to desire to move his mind. Dream himself about. Delighted by his discovery he found himself suddenly running. Jumping, flipping. Taking joy in the simple ability to move he allowed the desperation of the situation to slip away from him. It came blasting back to him when he again noticed the sound of footsteps. Turning to his imaginary left he raised a hand to shield his eyes from the imaginary sun as he strained to see where the sounds were coming from. In the distance he saw a sight that froze his imaginary heart. The cold voices. The collective. The borg were there. Marching across the field within his mind Borg drones of millions of sorts were marching towards him. The bodies marched towards him with cold eyes and efficient steps. "Acting on impulse Spider attempted to leap up into a nearby tree. Tried to hide from their view. Hide from the certain death that marched towards him with cold eyes and colder voices. However in the astral plain he did not have the super powers that he did in the corporeal world. Instead of carrying him dozens of feet into the air and easily into the tree the leap carried him only a pathetic foot or so into the dreamscape air and back down onto the ground where he stood stunned. The knowledge that he had no powers scared him more than he remembered ever being. He was normal, weak, unarmed before hordes of inhumanly efficient and terribly lethal enemies. Turning away from the tree he let himself stagger backwards to lean against the trunk. He watched as the voices closed on him. Tried to think of something. Some way out. Some way to escape them. He couldn't. As the desperation began to affect him his mood darkened. Terrified he stood away from the tree. Turned and ran. Ran away from the hordes of Borg that marched towards him. Ran away from the voices. Ran away from the fear and pain he remembered when he thought of them. As he ran his mood darkened further. One way of proving this was the clouds that had formed in the imaginary sky above him. And the rain that began to fall from them to the imaginary earth beneath him.  
  
Callahan was moving faster than he had in a long time. Pushing himself harder than he usually ever cared to he flew out of the space station so quickly that the massive depressurization that resulted in his opening a hole in the hull was pre-empted by a massive sonic boom. Focusing the smallest fraction of the telekinetic power he contained he shielded the two unconscious forms he left behind him from the shockwave. As he did this he also telekinetically pushed the torn metal of the hull back into place and pushed as much of the air that had escaped as he could back into the station. Sealing the hole he had made he flew past the miles of free floating debris and miles more of cold void towards the closest of the three Borg cubes. Looking towards them he was suddenly startled by their condition. The cubes. All three of them were ravaged. Stopping suddenly in his path Psyche looked around desperately. He hated to waste any time for such things. A single second's delay could mean the death of one or more of the friends he had left behind him. He had to however. Another one of his friends could be in just as much danger. It only took a quarter of a second to find Inferno. Though the vast majority of his rage-turned-energy was gone he was still as bright as a star. Shielding his eyes and not allowing himself to look directly at his friend for more than a second he understood. It seemed that Chris had stopped holding back and had unleashed his full force on the three Cubes. His rage had fueled his energy attacks and had allowed him to disable the cubes completely. Releasing his energies at the cubes he reduced two into nothing more than large chunks of charred metal and the last one. The one his two friends had boarded he had burned the outside of but had kept it in one piece. Those on board would have been tossed from their feet. Perhaps even burned if they were too close to the outer hull but those deep within the ship would be alright. Not stopping to explain anything, Psyche rocketed towards the last cube. Propelling himself with all the speed he could muster he had boarded the damaged ship in seconds leaving his friend, the star in the shape of a man alone with his thoughts. Normally Callahan would have preferred to help him. Ease his mind. But he couldn't. Not only did Callahan lack the answers Inferno would need for comfort but he also could not spare the time to give them. Instead he was forced to leave him behind. As he entered the ship however he would not continue with his plan till he found Creature and Tech. Scanning the ship telepathically he found Tech in a state of frenzy. Confusion, desperation and fear controlled the mind Psyche made contact with which concerned Psyche even further. Instead of delving deeper into his teammate's mind to find out what was happening he simply changed course to go to him. And sped up.  
  
Tech was caught completely by surprise. He didn't have time to turn around to defend himself from the efforts of the attacker. Nor did he realize who the attacker was. Had he seen it's face he would have recognized it immediately as that of his friend. The assimilated Anomaly had caught up with him, crossed the distance while Tech's back was turned and injected him with the nano-probes that would ultimately assimilate him. Tech was shocked by the sudden attack and immediately began to feel the effects of assimilation. In a state of shock he did nothing to fight the nano-probes. When something struck the outside of the cube however both he and his attacker were thrown from their feet. The sudden impact of the floor hitting him in the head snapped Tech back to his senses. The idiot lights flashed before his eyes as the computer in his head redundantly informed him of the nano-probes invading his orifices. With a mental command he ordered his computer to display a list of options. Instantly a list of them scrolled across the inside of his eyelids. Focusing on the written words instead of the pain caused by the assimilation he stopped on one in particular. Smiling to himself he selected it and ordered the computer to initiate the specified plan. Within his head, right where the spine meets the skull his computers began to construct a device. The clock ticked away as his computers raced to complete the device before the probes completed their assimilation. Tech gave no thought to the catastrophic results if a menace like the borg were given access to the Technology Tech's body contained. Instead he tried only to focus on something to get his mind off of the pain. Anything he could think of. He played old movies in his head but each scene was punctuated by sudden sharp pains screaming through his mind. And each scene turned into a nightmarish image of torture and pain. Changing his attention to sports he filled his head with statistics and rosters. Those he couldn't remember his computers supplemented easily. Each time the pain caught his attention he sped up in his listing of team rosters and statistics. It was a pointless endeavor but he had to do something to focus himself. In seconds however his computers had completed a list of every team roster from every sport for each year since the origin of the particular professional sport. Beside each name was a list of statistics that completed a sports record the likes of which the world had ever seen. The thought reminded him of some sort of maniacal rant. In response to this his computer began to display quotes from numerous literary works. Anything it could find in it's expansive database that could be classified as a rant. This however did not occupy Tech and soon he began to black out. Noticing this his computers released a series of chemicals into his bloodstream that acted like smelling salts. Snapped suddenly awake again he fought to stay that way. Rising from his position on the floor he tried to stand but a sudden stabbing pain in his side had him staggering to the side. Losing his balance he fell again to the floor and this time stayed there. "alright" he thought "I got a distraction... Sex!" and in response images began flashing within his head that displayed just that. Scenes from very explicit movies played out in his mind. Even a few memories of his own were displayed in vivid detail. However even this could not keep his mind off of the situation. Tech was horrified to find that the scenes playing out in his head were also turning to scenes of cruel torture and nightmarish mutilation. He found himself envisioning Borg drones and giant nano-probes ruining everything he imagined. It seemed that even sex was not enough to distract him. The thought disturbed Jason Hedge deeply. And in a halfway joking tone he found himself yelling "NOT SEX TOO!?! NOOOOOO!!!" he yelled as he rose to his feet. His humorous thought actually seemed to amuse him despite the pain and as he thought it the device he was constructing was completed. Activating it immediately a surge of energy coursed through his body. Each the millions of nano-probes then inhabiting his body was touched by the energy and thus immobilized. The probes were reprogrammed and reversed their actions mere seconds after the energy had touched them. Coursing through his veins they no longer damaged his innards, nor did they attempt to take control of him. Instead they were doing the opposite. Repairing the damage both his organic and cybernetic body parts had received the probes were assimilated into his system. Rising to his full height he turned to look at the drones that ignored him. It seemed that they had dismissed any danger his presence posed once the assimilation process began. Instead of attacking him it seemed they were hard at work repairing the damages the ship had taken. Suddenly remembering his plan Tech checked his watch. On the display was a progress report on the effects of the virus he had loaded into the borg ship. Quickly glancing at the display he was informed by his scanners that the other two cubes had been destroyed and that this one was completely disabled. The computer systems that he had loaded the virus into were completely ruined making the virus pointless. As far as his plan went it seemed his actions were completely pointless and resulted in needless loss. Instead of being angered by the futility of his actions and the horrible situation he and his teammates were in he was mildly amused. "Take that Borg!" he thought "that's what you get when you mess with Jason Hedge and his friends" just then the wall to his left exploded. Fragments of machinery and wiring were scattered about the corridor as something came through. Immediately Tech recognized the form of his friend and teammate Callahan. Before he could say anything however Callahan, also known as Psyche began speaking to him. "TECH! Are you alright?" Psyche asked hurriedly. In response Jason simply shrugged and nodded. Not questioning it Psyche went on "where's Creature?" he asked. This time Tech's response was not so light. He grimaced and looked away muttering his response. "Assimilated." he said. Looking back up at his friend he expected to be pressed on the matter. He expected Psyche to demand to know the circumstances but he didn't. Instead he responded with one word and turned to leave. Before Tech could ask any questions of him Psyche had flew away down the corridor. Acting before he really knew why he simply followed the path his omnipathic friend had taken. He had to run as fast as he could to even stay in sight of Psyche however and even then lost sight of him in seconds. When he caught up with him he was horrified by what he saw. Psyche had flown off in search of a drone. After his brief flight he found a few of them. Acting as swiftly as he could Psyche blasted one of them to bits and slammed another into a nearby wall, reducing it to gooey debris. When the third turned to attack him in response to his assault to the collective Psyche did something unexpected. He let the drone get him. Floating to the ground as the drone approached he stood before the thing and lowered the telekinetic cocoon he always kept around himself as protection. The drone was not suspicious of his opponent's sudden vulnerability. It showed no caution or fear as it approached. And when it reached him it did not hesitate to extend it's assimilators to his flesh. Biting into his flesh the tubes injected nano- probes into his body. Instantly Psyche's muscles clenched and he grimaced in pain. Sinking to his knees he extended one palm towards the drone that had assaulted him and with a thought he reduced it to a thin vapor. As if hurt by the very effort of doing so he doubled over and sunk to the floor as Tech rushed to his side.  
  
Things weren't going well for Spider. In the astral plane, pursued by countless Borg drones, without powers and in pouring rain he was running for his life through what appeared to be a very familiar provincial park. Unfortunately the park wasn't familiar enough. He was lost. He didn't seem to get tired, which was good. At the speed he was running, without powers he would have been completely out of breath by now. Giving it only a quick thought he guessed that he didn't really have air to breath here so it didn't matter much. Still the paths and trees he passed were beginning to look disturbingly familiar. For a few seconds he despaired that in the realm of his mind he couldn't leave. That even if he escaped the drones for long enough to get out of the park he would only walk right back into the park on the other side. He was worried that he would not be able to escape, that no matter what he did he was doomed to torture and death at the hands of the borg that pursued him. He didn't know enough to know if his worries were right or not. He didn't know enough to think of a plan. He didn't know anything except that his friend Psyche had brought him here and that he was being pursued by the Borg which had access to his mind via the nano-probes they had injected him with. He knew that somewhere in the real world they had control of his body and he had no idea how to get it back. For now he couldn't worry about that though. "One thing at a time" he thought then was startled by his thought as it echoed out into infinite. "And Stop calling it the real world." he added. "Psyche's told you enough to know that the danger is just as real in here" he thought, remembering the one thing his psychic friend (and The Matrix) had told him: A body can't function when the mind is dead. If he died in here he'd be just as dead in the real world as he would if someone blew a hole in him. Despite the certainty he had on the subject it brought him no comfort, nor did it give him any new ideas. All he could think of was to keep running. When the forest disappeared around him and he suddenly found himself in a desolate wasteland he finally stopped. The entire landscape had changed completely in the space between one footfall and the next. Trying to take everything in as quickly as possible he looked around in all directions. What he saw horrified him. The borg were everywhere. No longer were they pursuing him from one direction. Instead everywhere he looked he was greeted with the sight of a wall of drones approaching him. They still wore the cold expressionless faces he had seen so many times before and they still had the same efficient, inhuman movements but one thing was different. They didn't have the machines. In the real world (or solid world) Borg drones were covered in cybernetic implants. You couldn't see a single foot of flesh anywhere on any drone without an inch or two of machinery protruding from it. Here though they were entirely organic. The grey areas of their bodies that he had originally mistaken for their metal was simply fabric. A simple rough canvas shirt and pants that each of them wore. As Spider noticed this in his desperation he began to understand. The drones didn't have individuality. Their minds were controlled by machines. By the collective. Here however those machines didn't have form. Artificial intelligence does not have a psychic signature. They were entirely organic. Which meant that they were unarmed. Without the enhancement of their implants or the weapons built into their bodies they would be harmless. Or at least as harmless as an immeasurably large mob of zombie-like attackers could be. Without his powers Spider still did not stand much of a chance but at least he could last a while longer than he thought. He could fight them off for a while. How long he didn't know, there were so many of him that he knew it wouldn't be long but maybe long enough for something to happen. Maybe Psyche had a plan and would save him soon. Maybe all he had to do was last a couple of minutes. Maybe even only seconds. But then again Maybe Callahan wasn't coming. Maybe he thought that Spider would be safe in the astral plane and was only worrying about Spider's body. Spider shuddered at the thought. Although he in no way wanted harm to come to his body Spider knew his mind was more important. He knew that he had to survive in here before he could worry about out there. And he knew that surviving in here for long wouldn't be easy. In fact, he knew it was gonna be quite difficult. As these thoughts raced through his mind and consequently raced outwards as well Spider looked around for something he could use as a weapon. A fallen log he could swing or a fist size rock he could palm. Anything that would help him fight longer against the hordes of enemies slowly closing in on him. All he found however, was sand. In the desolate wasteland that surrounded him there was nothing growing. No trees, no bushes, there weren't even rocks. Small or large there were none. "This isn't a desert" he thought "it's a giant sandbox". As the drones drew closer he began to grow more desperate. Falling to his hands and knees he sifted his hands through the sand searching for something beneath the surface. Hoping desperately that he would find some club or stick or rock. Some weapon that he could use. He began to visualize it as his hands shifted through the sand all about. Circling about at a crawl he searched everywhere and found nothing. His mind raced. Then suddenly he felt something. His hand brushed against something. Immediately he reacted. Searching where he had felt the mystery object. Nothing. For several horrifying seconds he searched the spot he had felt it and then in the area all around it. Ignoring the danger that closed in on him he found himself again imagining the object hidden beneath the sand. He pictured a club. Small enough to wield with one hand, yet heavy enough to do damage. The kind you'd never see in real life but see cartoon cavemen wielding all the time. He pictured the seemingly natural tear-drop shape of it. How it came from a round edge to a point just below the handle. He pictured himself holding the tool. Imagined himself wielding it against the Drones. He stopped his search altogether and dreamed of his rampage through the unsuspecting, unarmed drones. His thoughts of battle- cries and angry shouts echoed outwards like shockwaves. He could feel them stretch outward in waves. Hear them spread out as they traveled away from him. Again realization struck him like a jackhammer. A sudden strong wave of thought rocketed outward in all directions. "OF COURSE!" it screamed in the minds of all it touched. And as he thought it he began to focus. Not on a word, or an image, but an object. The feeling, the sight, even perhaps the smell. He was dreaming up a weapon. For seconds he focused and was rewarded with nothing. Then the feeling of a handle within his grasp made itself present. Startled he looked at his hand. In his fist was the handle of a club. The club he had pictured was materializing in his hand. But halfway there it dissipated. Spreading out into infinite as his words had. Looking up he saw the drones closer than ever. They would be upon him in seconds. He had to focus harder, had to try again. He did. This time instead of a club he imagined a sword. Instead of simply creating the object with thought he tried to focus his thoughts to his hands. Instead of sending out shockwaves of solid thought as he had with his words he willed the dream to appear only within his hands. He focused with all his will and was instantly rewarded. The sword he had imagined had appeared. It was a plain sword. No fancy designs or decorations. Just handle and blade stretching out by slightly less than the length of his arm. With a smile upon his face he stood. Gripping the sword in one hand he raised the sword up. Holding it out in front of him he continued to focus on keeping it solid. As the drones approached Spider braced himself for what he knew would still be the fight of his life. He knew he could still lose. Knew that he might still fall before their superior numbers far before his friends saved him. But now he knew with deadly certainty that if he wouldn't go down without a fight. That as several of the drones that approached would also die. He was desperate. His back was against the wall so to speak and he didn't have any choices. In a way he liked it. Options gave him responsibility. He was obligated to find the BEST solution. Here he had no options. He had only one solution. Survive as long as you can, and if you go down, take as many of them with you as you can. And as the drones reached him he began to do just that.  
  
Psyche hadn't been thinking. Being assimilated was a horrible plan. If Spider had heard it he would have laughed at him. He would have scoffed at the very idea. Would have told Psyche what was wrong with the plan in terms that Chase assumed everyone would understand. A lifetime of reading comic books had given Chase a knack for understanding concepts like the borg. They had given him an idea of how things like the borg assimilation process worked. It also gave him insight into Telepathic phenomena and strategies as to how to deal with paranormal events that the Anomalies had become accustomed to running into. It was Chase's history of reading comic books and his fast thinking that had made him their leader. Although they often argued with his orders when he gave them Spider was the first person they turned to for ideas. Psyche didn't need Spider to tell him what was wrong with his plan anymore though. He understood. His plan had been a simple one. Let the borg assimilate him. Let the collective form a link with his mind. And once that link was made sabotage the entire collective consciousness with his psionic abilities. There were two problems with his plan however. One was that the collective was made up of countless trillions of minds. As powerful as Psyche's mind was he couldn't simply force back that much psionic force. There was too much collective to beat in a direct psychic battle. The second problem however was a bigger one. The assimilation wasn't a telepathic attack. The link wasn't a thing of thought or psionic force. It was machines physically attaching themselves to your mind and chemically and electrically manipulating the functions of your cerebral cortex. He couldn't fight the attack. He was no more suited to resist assimilation than Spider had been. True he could have prevented assimilation forever. Could have even telekinetically destroyed the nano- probes that infected him if he wanted. He could have if he had tried to earlier. Now it was too late. The machines had taken his body already. The pain of assimilation wasn't a problem for him. A telepath of his level was able to ignore pain entirely. Pain after all, was only an electrical response in your mind to nerve damage. A person with complete control of his mind could block electrical signals like that easily. Even a telepath like Callahan however, could not block the electrical signals the probes were sending to his muscles however. They were not coming from his mind after all. They were electrical signals sent to his muscles directly from probes attached to his muscles. They were governed and generated by a hive consciousness larger than any in the universe (or at least he assumed it was). And try as he might Psyche could not use his mind to combat that. As he lost control of his body the probes were already traveling through his bloodstream to his brain. As psyche struggled in vain he noted how his vision began to blur. He could feel the machines in his body. He felt as they attached themselves to his muscles, to his organs, to his brain. He felt them as they began to take over. And when he realized that the link would only come after his telepathic abilities were cut off at the source he tried, too late to fight back. He couldn't. His powers were already cut off. His mind was already being stripped down and drained away by the collective. He was being assimilated and there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn't stop it. Terror gripped him but his body showed no signs of it. The terror was his own after all, not the emotion of the forces that had taken his body. He began to lose focus of his own thoughts as he finally gave up. He couldn't stay and fight them. He would lose. Instead he chose the alternative. The option that only he had. He fled. Focusing his consciousness he willed it to drift out of his very mind. His thoughts, his emotions, his personality, his psyche drifted out of his body in a ghostly projection of himself. As it left his body fell still. A lifeless husk no longer capable of thought. The spark that caused his thoughts to take form, the presence within that many would define as his soul simply left. The ability to leave his body like this was called astral projection by those familiar with telepathy. It was a way for people to escape the confines of their bodies and explore the vast reaches of infinite. The ability however was not without it's risks. Each action was far more difficult. Travel required force of will that drained you in ways far too difficult to describe accurately. It was not fatigue. There were no muscles to tire, nor blood to heat up. Instead it was a sort of energy expenditure. It drained away your very being and could theoretically drain you away to nothing. Those that astral projected could only go so far before they were forced to either return to a body where their spirit could rest or they could die. The more powerful you were psionically the longer you could remain out of body and so as the most powerful mind a mortal has ever possessed Psyche had a fairly long while to come up with something but the clock was still ticking. He would have to get back in a body eventually. With his body a nothing more than a borg death trap he didn't have many options. And if he tried to inhabit someone else's body he would be damning them to drain away in the astral plain. It would be murder and Callahan would not commit it. He would not allow his own life to be more important than another's. He would not let another die just so he could live. At least not yet. Desperation can make a person do strange things and Psyche was definitely desperate. But that was a thought for later. If he could help it, things would not come to that. While Psyche did not sure if he actually could help it or not he was going to try. For now he searched. He searched for an idea. Floating through the damaged corridors of the disabled Borg cube he was like a ghost. Passing through drones and debris like they didn't exist he searched for someone. A drone. One he knew was out close but did not know where. Moving at speeds that he could not match in the confines of a body he searched the faces of hundreds of drones as he passed. Searched for the face of a friend among countless soulless techno- zombies. While it took only minutes for him to find the drone he was searching for the seconds stretched on like hours. When he finally found his target he was so relieved that a psionic wave of emotion spread out from his ghostly form and touched the minds of everything withing ten miles. Since there was only one person within that distance that was capable of feeling emotion it wasn't really that significant an event. To Tech, the one person who felt it, it was quite confusing actually. There he was, kneeling over the prostrate form of his assimilated friend who was showing no sign of life nor reaction to Tech's attempts to waken him when suddenly Tech is overcome by a wave of relief ultimately originating from Psyche. While he was unaccustomed to tending comatose allies, Tech would never expect one to telepathically inform him that it is relieved. All in all it was mildly disturbing. Psyche however could not have cared less at the time. He was too focused on his target. Floating there only a foot or so behind the cybernetically altered form of Creature he searched the drone's mind for any sign of the mind that once dwelled within it. There was none. The relief Psyche had felt ended abruptly, again it was replaced by fear. Fear that his friend's consciousness was destroyed. That it was swallowed whole by the collective and could never be recovered. Instead of breaking Psyche however the thought reinforced him. He would not accept a loss like that. He was determined to save not only Creature but Sage and Frenzy as well. He would free them from the collective's control and he would carry them to safety as they recovered. He would move heaven and earth for his friends because he knew that they would do the same for him if they could (some with a bit more cursing than others). Placing his ghostly hands upon the temples of the drone that had once been creature he focused. Forcing past the mental barriers that the collective naturally built he probed the deepest depths of Creature's mind searching for the slightest light. The tiniest spark of life with him. It took an excruciating amount of time but eventually he found it. A small fragment of the mind that had once been Creature still existed within, struggling to survive as the immeasurable force of the collective threatened to smother it. Grabbing hold of that spark Psyche poured his energy into it. Fueling the light of consciousness with his own astral life force he restored it to its full state. He had taken the matchstick of flame floating on the surface of a turbulent ocean and had raised it to its fullest size. Once again Creatures mind was a pyre. Once again he was alive. The result was chaos. The drone that he had become was suddenly assaulted by a full sized spirit within it and had been caught completely unprepared. The chaos wouldn't last long however. If left to it's own the collective would again smother Creature's mind. Psyche would not allow that. Reaching deep and taking hold he yanked on Creature's mind. Pulling his consciousness out of his body he helped Creature form an astral projection of himself. Not waiting for the ghostly body to even fully form he took hold of it and used his mind to shift them to somewhere far away. He shifted them to the astral plane. As soon as they arrived he saw what was happening. He had hoped that the borg would not be able to follow them here but they didn't need to. They had gotten here before the two Anomalies. The astral plane always took the appearance that the majority of its inhabitants willed it to. If there were only two in the astral plane then it would take the form of a familiar place from the stronger mind. Psyche had long ago constructed his version of the astral plane. It was a dream-copy of his own home and neighborhood. Since he was the most powerful telepath the world had ever seen he had never before encountered a situation where the plane took on a different appearance. Until now. Now it was a desolate field. It was a desert. Completely void of any life or color, there weren't even rocks decorating the harsh landscape. It would have been an endless expanse of emptiness if it wasn't for the overcrowding. Drones were everywhere. There was an endless number of them stretching out in every direction. For as far as the eye could see the drones marched toward the two of them. Psyche was in his traditional Anomalies uniform of a plain black windbreaker over a white t- shirt and plain blue jeans with socks that don't match. Creature however was in a new outfit that Psyche had never seen before. He wore black track pants of some sort with white patches on it shaped to imitate slash marks. On his chest he wore a dark tank top with similar white slashes surrounded by a cloak made of what looked like black fur. The cloak was attached to his shirt by buckles that were made to resemble panther heads. On his wrists were bands that also wore the same black fur and had panther claws extending over the back of Creature's hands and at his waist was a thick black belt with a Silver and white buckle the size of a dinner plate. The buckle was ornately designed. Displaying an assortment of different vicious animals surrounding a picture of a man. As Psyche saw all this he laughed, despite himself. His friend looked like a reject from an old fifties Tarzan movie. Looking down at himself Creature noticed the costume and blushed. This only caused Psyche to laugh harder. After all it was the first time he had seen anyone in the astral plane blush. It was also the first time he had seen such a ridiculous outfit within the astral plane or not. In the plane was perhaps even funnier since you appear in the astral plane as you view yourself. The idea that Creature pictured himself like some sort of b- movie jungle kind was hilarious. Between laughs Creature managed to actually explain himself a bit "it's just a costume idea I had been toying with." he said "I wasn't gonna use it" at this Psyche simply nodded and had to fight back another wave of laughter before he could continue. "Alright" he said finally. "Now those are drones out there and they're coming right for us. I had hoped we wouldn't be followed to the astral plane but they're more persistent than I thought. Before they get here I gotta give you the astral plane crash course. One: in a second you'll try to do stuff like move around or talk or something and you'll find that you can't. That's because the way you know of moving doesn't work here. Here you don't have muscles or organs or bones. Here you cant just send electrical impulses to your muscles to get your legs to take steps. You have to will yourself to take steps directly. Direct your thoughts to your legs manually. Got it?" after a moment Creature slowly raised one arm to in front of his face, lowered it and nodded. "Alright then. Two: here you don't have powers. That means if you get an arm chopped off you can't regrow it. If you get a hole punched in you, you can't fill it. If something happens to you that would injure a normal person you'll get injured.... and third: if something happens to you that would kill a normal person... you'll die. I hope you already know that dying here is just the same as dying anywhere else. Dead is dead so try not to get killed alright?" at this Creature again nodded. "Okay and lastly I'll show you how to fight here. Your mind can make things. Thought is real here so if you think about a weapon it'll become real." at this point Psyche's speech was interrupted by a shockwave of thought speaking the words "Jennifer Lopez in the shower" The joke however was not appreciated and Psyche went on. "Very funny but it wouldn't help us against them would it?" he said pointing at the legion of drones closing in on them from all sides. "And that didn't work because you weren't thinking right. You were thinking words. You gotta think the object itself. And just like you move your arms and legs you gotta focus the thought to where you want the object to be. Do you understand?" Creature said nothing. Instead he held out his hands and held them out palms upward. Then with a look of cartoonish concentration he focused on the spot in each of his palms. Shortly afterwards two identical samurai swords appeared. Smiling Creature gripped the swords and lowered himself into a combat position. As soon as he did so however the weapons disappeared. "No you gotta keep focusing on them. Unlike just moving you cant just make it then move on. The weapons are maintained by your constant focus. If you stop focusing on the object it'll disappear." nodding silently he focused again. Again the two blades appeared and again Creature lowered himself into a combat position. This time the blades remained in his hand as he swung them about a few times to test the weight. The display looked more professional than Creature really was. While he had studied martial arts several years ago he had given up on them once he got his powers. Since then anything he had learned had been long forgotten and any displays of martial arts he showed was entirely fake. Satisfied however by his friend's quick learning Psyche turned away from his friend and constructed a thing or two of his own. In seconds his image had been replaced with a suit of armor. Similar to that the Ghost units had worn. All sleek and smooth he looked like a Motorcyclist with kevlar body armor. The armor was actually far more impressive than it looked however and so was the sword that came with it. The armor was a silver and white combination that was completely opaque. The sword wasn't it was shaped like a very elegant sword that one might find being associate with one of the three musketeers but the blade was wider. And seemed to be made of air. While you could clearly make out the edges of the blade the middle of it looked like the blurry heat you see coming off of a barbecue. Or off of a paved road on a hot summer day. Having constructed his weapon and armor Psyche checked once more on Creature to make sure he had learned everything he could. Satisfied that he had Psyche took to the air. Scouting about for something in the time before the drones reached them. After a moment he had found nothing and floated back to the surface. Afraid that Spider had been defeated before they arrived but not wanting to betray that fear to Creature he found himself suddenly glad that the armor he had created hid his face. With only seconds left before the drones were upon them hope suddenly found it's way back into Psyche's heart. When it came it arrived in the form of a shockwave of thought. As the thought touched him Psyche suddenly saw an image of a club. It looked like every other club he had seen in cartoons as a child. Looking as though it grew into the long tear-drop shape it was in naturally instead of being carved. As soon as he saw it he knew the thought hadn't come from any of the drones. If they were going to make weapons they would have by now. He also knew it hadn't come from Creature. He wouldn't make a club when he had two swords already. Instead it had come from someone in the distance to his left. Immediately he knew what he was going to do. "Creature stay close and follow me... and don't worry about killing them. They aren't alive." without checking to see what Creature's response was he turned to his left and ran. As he ran he used the sword he had created to cut down every drone in his path.  
  
"Sir the energy storm seems to be dying down" Lieutenant Gibson said as Captain Beattie stepped onto the bridge. "Do you have a lock on it's position?" he asked his lieutenant as he sat down in the captain's chair. "Aye sir" Lieutenant responded. "We're closing on it as we speak. In fact we should have visual by now." he said. "On screen then." the captain commanded. As soon as he had said it the view-screen blinked to life displaying a debris filled area of space in the middle of an asteroid belt. In the center of the screen's display was a star. A star would not have roused the attention of a Galaxy class Federation starship if it were not unique. This star was unique. For one thing it was the smallest star anyone had ever seen. The solid portion or the star was no more than six feet across. For another thing it was burning with as much energy as the brightest star in Federation records. And Lastly it was very oddly shaped. Six feet across one way and no more than one foot another way. Instead of being shaped like a ball of burning gas it was shaped like a tube. A tube with four smaller tubes protruding from it. In fact, after looking at it for only a second Captain Beattie recognized the shape. It was a man. Within all that immeasurable burning energy was a person. "My god." the captain muttered. "Is that thing alive?" he asked turning to look at one of his lieutenants. As he turned he was greeted with the sight of every officers on the bridge staring in awe at the shape on the screen. "Lieutenant!" he commanded. Startled Lieutenant Gibson looked over to him. After a second of silence the lieutenant realized that the captain had asked him a question and quickly snapped his attention to his console. "Umm could be sir... this is unlike anything I've ever seen." He said finally. "I don't know for sure if it's alive but I can tell you that there aren't any machines in there... that thing is all natural." Understanding made itself recognizable on the captain's face as he looked back to the view- screen. "Hail it" he said.  
  
Inferno had been distracted. He barely noticed the Starship that was quickly coming closer to him even though it was the size of a small country and was approaching him from directly in front of him. He was so far into his own little world that he hadn't been paying attention to anything going on around him. When he did notice the ship however he was immediately snapped out of it. He also immediately recognized the type of ship. Having grown up watching old Star Trek episodes almost religiously he knew a Federation ship when he saw one. The familiar disk front, attached to a wide flat neck with four pontoon like tubes held out at the sides. The ship design he was used to had only two pontoons and had a wider disk but still he recognized the similarities immediately. He also recognized the Federation insignia branded upon the hull and the words U.S.S. AVENGER 147081 that surrounded the insignia and was branded upon the sides of the hull as well. Once he noticed the ship he immediately remembered the situation he was in. Standing guard over the UED space station which had been boarded by borg and hit by several crippling blasts he was sure there were numerous injured humans trapped upon the station. Also there was the matter of the damaged borg ship that three of his friends were aboard. He would need to get help for them as well. And once they were off the cube he would vaporize it. And so in an attempt to get the attention of the ship he sent a flare of energy upwards as a signal to them. Seconds after he had done so however the ship fired at him. A beam of energy as wide as a bus cut through the space between the ship and Inferno slamming into his energies with enough force to vaporize a city. The blast was energy however and thus did nothing to Inferno except startle him. "NO! WAIT!" he yelled at three more blasts lanced towards him. He made no effort to dodge the blasts and simply let them hit him. Waving his arms above his head he screamed at the ship to stop. Without any technological aid or Psyche relaying his thoughts though his yells went completely unheard. Part of his ability while in his inferno form was to speak. It was a kind of psionic speech since there was no air in his lungs to project sounds through. Instead he manipulated energy waves within his burn and made sounds that way. While in the harsh void of space his ability to communicate was extremely limited. He could not wear a communicator since his energy would burn it away in seconds and there was no air to create sound waves through. His only option was a com beam that he generated for direct, line of sight communication. For this he projected a beam that cocooned the person or object at each end and allowed for vibrations the same way air did. He had never tried it on a ship before and didn't know if the sounds would come through to the inside or if he would simply be yelling at a hull. At this point he didn't care. Holding one hand out in front of him he pointed it towards the ship. Immediately the com beam lanced outwards and struck the ship. The beam was completely harmless and the beam could only be perceived as a threat visually. Inferno assumed that a Federation Starship would realize the purpose of such a beam and stop to listen. He was wrong. As soon as the beam touched the hull the ship began to move. Propelling itself upwards at an impossible angle it twisted and turned to leave. Inferno tried to follow it with his beam but it was miles away to begin with and moving fast. It would take an incredibly powerful computer to target the ship at this distance. In seconds the ship was shrinking away in the distance. Angry at the ship's mistake he didn't know what to do. He needed the ships help that much he knew but he had no idea how to get it. One thing he did know however was that the ship wouldn't provide any help at all if he lost it. And so he moved to follow it. Accelerating as fast as his energies could propel him the ship began to grow again in his line of vision. As he followed behind it his mind raced with ideas as to how to get it to help. Briefly he considered grabbing hold of the ship and dragging it back to the station. The plan was well within his capabilities. Still he dismissed the idea as too aggressive. "If they reacted so strongly to a signal flare then a tractor beam might cause them to self destruct their ship." he thought as he closed the distance between himself and the ship. In seconds he would reach it and still he had no idea how to stop them. Maybe burning a hole in the hull and talking to the captain in person? No, again within his power but again far too aggressive. Finally he had an idea he could use. Speeding up suddenly he rocketed toward the front of the ship aiming to cut it off. Stopping in front of it he forced the ship to slow down or ram him. If they rammed him he'd burn a hole right through their hull from end to end. They didn't ram him. Instead the ship slowed nearly to a stop then suddenly turned upwards again speeding off into the distance. Again Inferno Raced after them and again he put himself in front of the ship and stopped. Waving his arms madly as it slowed to a stop before him he waited a moment to be sure it wouldn't fly off again. When he was sure he turned around and pointed one hand into the space a few miles in front of the ship. Firing out a beam of energy he slowly moved his arm downwards. Continuing to pour out more energy he watched in satisfaction as the beam he shot out stopped after a few miles. The beam didn't dissipate, instead the energy simply stopped and floated where it was while he poured more energy out to meet it. The energy construct was making was simple. It was a letter. "H" in seconds he had finished it and was making another one next to it. And then another. After no more than ten seconds he had made a word. "HELP" it said in mile high letters each as bright as a lightning bolt. Once he had completed it he waited. "What now?" he thought. How was he to know what there response was. After a moment he wrote more. This time much smaller and much closer to himself he wrote "My friends are in trouble." and then "Open your hangar bay". After watching for a moment he realized they weren't going to. Realizing that they had no reason to trust him he wrote more. "I'm human" turning to see the ship's response he waited. Still the ship made no move to comply. Instead it hung there before him as expressionless as a mountain. Sighing to himself he prepared to write much more. "The energy wont damage anything, I'll lower the burn when I enter your ship and once you close the doors I'll turn back to normal." as emphasis he lowered his burn considerably. No longer was he putting out as much energy as a large star. Instead he was merely as powerful as a large forest fire. "I need air to breathe when I'm normal so I can't turn back yet" he wrote. Still he waited for a response and none came. Then finally he wrote one last message "please?" it was a desperate thing and at that point Inferno didn't expect it to work. After all would you pick up a hitchhiker who happened to be completely immersed in flame? So when the ship turned to one side he thought they were turning to leave. When the bay door opened in the space between the higher and lower pontoon Inferno was stunned. After a second's hesitation he realized that they were inviting him aboard. Immediately he moved to enter the ship. In seconds he was inside the starboard shuttle bay waiting for atmosphere to return to the chamber. When a force field blinked to life in the doorway of the bay and the air returned he allowed his burn to dissipate as promised. Immediately a door at the back of the shuttle bay opened and two dozen armed guards walked through. After a moment of silence the guards were followed by three men in the familiar Red and Black uniform Chris recognized as those of senior officers. "Hi" he said as one of the officers stepped forward. The man he had greeted was in his mid forties and according to the pins on his collar he was the Captain. He had black hair that was slicked back tightly and a well trimmed goatee. The man walked with a certainty about him that seemed to say he always knew what he was doing and was always annoyed. "Hello" the captain responded. "My name is Captain Daniel Beattie of the..." "AVENGER?" Chris cut in "Yeah I saw it on your hull. Thanks for the reminder though." he said and chuckled to himself. At this the captain turned to one of his officers and tilted his head slightly in a silent gesture of annoyed disbelief. Turning back to Chris he continued. "Yes well, this is my security chief commander Troy Averson and ship's councilor Eric Phiers" he said gesturing to each of the two officers that accompanied him in turn. Chris greeted each of them impatiently "now you mentioned that you needed help? What seems to be the problem?" The captain asked finally. Chris who wasn't sure what exactly he was going to say at this point simply let it all out. "Alright, we're lost in an entire alternate dimension that shouldn't exist, since you're here I guess so are you. Me and eight of my teammates are super heroes from earth in the year 2004. We were put here by this crazy cosmic butler that told us to fix the place when we have no idea what's wrong. We got attacked by a fleet of aliens who eventually ran away, the battle attracted a UED fleet to our position. UED by the way stands for United Earth Directorate, they are a military organization that represents the human empire in one dimension in the year 2100 or so. They investigated the battle sight and tried to capture us. To get them to leave us alone we traveled to their main space station to negotiate with their leaders. When we got there the station got attacked by three borg cubes. That's where I was when you showed up. The station is a wreck and several of them need medical attention. Also the station is heavily damaged and needs repair or everyone on board will die and at least one of my teammates needs medical help too so since you're the only ship we've seen that can help I'm thinking it all comes down to how you respond to what really must sound like my deranged ranting." at this he paused and simply looked to the captain for a response. The captain, his officers and every security officer in the shuttle bay had the same look of confused disbelief. After a moment or two Chris added. "Look I know it's hard to believe what with the time travel and aliens from other dimensions and what not but look at it this way, how easy would it be for you to believe if someone told you there was a human being that can turn into a star?" at this the captain took on a look of seriousness. "Yes, point noted. Where is this station?" he asked. "I don't know I don't have scanners or navigational computers crammed up my ass." Chris answered "I was right by it when you guys first ran into me." he said. "Yes well I think we'll be able to find our way back there and take a look... if you'll be willing to accompany me to the medical bay to confirm whether or not you are human" the captain said calmly. "alright but we gotta hurry people may be dying as we speak." and with that he followed the captain through the door he had come from and onto the turbo- lift. Accompanied of course by at least five of the armed guards.  
  
Surprisingly enough, Spider was having a incredibly difficult time of things. Apparently fighting against an army of countless mindless (and thus fearless) enemies with no powers and nothing by way of weapons save for a sword that he imagined into existence and was having considerable difficulty keeping it that way, it wasn't a fight he found easy. As they closed in from all sides at once he began swinging. The sword was obviously more powerful than he originally expected, cutting through the astral drone flesh and bone that it met and continuing in its path propelled along by his will. At the same time however the blade was a great deal more difficult to use than Spider would have liked. Several times already it's edges had blurred and it threatened to fade from existence when he allowed himself to lose his focus on it. The difficulty he experienced focusing on it was amplified by the very distracting prospect of hordes of zombie like enemies all around him. Still though Spider was determined to continue on as best he could. Already nearly a hundred drones had fallen before him and he worried that he would be buried by their fallen bodies. The worry however was dismissed when the bodies of the fallen began to fade from the realm just as his sword nearly did. The effect reminded spider of every action video game he had ever played. Bodies disappeared when they were no longer important. Idly he wondered if bullet holes or other damages to the terrain would also disappear as they do in most video games. Or if random furniture would explode if shot. The thought did him more harm than good however since there was no furniture to test it on and since the distraction of it nearly cost him his blade. In mid swing the blade of his weapon blinked out of existence no more than one imaginary inch from his target's neck. Thrown off balance by the sudden lack of resistance to his full force swing he nearly toppled to the ground. Fortunately instead of falling all the way to the ground he collided heavily with another drone. Unfortunately the drone immediately grabbed him and held tight as others moved in. Startled, Spider found himself with his arms held tightly to his side and his strength not enough to free them. Violently he struggled to free himself but the drones grip held. Spider's mind raced and every motion seemed to slow down (of course it's possible that it everything actually did slow down and it was not just a trick his mind was playing on him. He was after all currently presiding in the astral plane where your mind tends to play tricks on more than just you). He watched as another drone to his left balled up a fist and fired out towards him. The fist seemed to move with terrible slowness and yet when it struck the blow felt positively meteoric. Jerking to his left as the force of the blow took him he pushed off with both legs with all the force he could will himself to use. It seemed that his will was just enough as the momentum of the blow and of his attempted leap combined to break the grip of his captor and into the relative freedom of the center of the rest of the horde. He realized immediately that he was in "dire straights" as his father had often put it. Reaching up he put a hand to the place where the drone had hit him. Feeling his jaw quickly he was disturbed to find a trickle of blood pouring down the left side of his chin. The blood came from a split lower lip that was obviously caused by the drone's assault. The implications of the blood however was more troubling to Spider that the blood itself. After having spent five years "fighting crime" and being a "super hero" he had suffered injuries before. He could deal with injuries. What he could not deal with however was panic. Panic, desperation and fear. He had no time for such things, especially not now but still they threatened to surface. Until that point Spider was not clear as to how "real" the astral plane was. Every detail of the landscape seemed real enough but so many things were different. In his heart he had hoped that a lack of a real body in the astral plane had meant that he could not suffer injuries here. Now however he was proven wrong. And despite his best efforts that realization terrorized him. Focusing no longer on the blade it vanished in a blink. Looking quickly to the drone he had escaped he judged the distance, turned and made to run again. Immediately however, he realized that there was nowhere to go. Other drones were everywhere. They surrounded him and marched forward so determinedly towards him. The mass of their forms created a wall on all sides of him and those walls were again closing in. Had he reached out in any direction he could have pressed his palm to a drone. That was not something he planned to do however. In the space between one second and the next his fear was gone. He had not forced it back consciously. Instead something deep in his mind realized that the desperation of this situation no longer allowed for fear. The situation no longer allowed for emotion of any kind. Instead they were replaced by sheer willpower. With a force he would never have believed himself to possess Spider balled up his own fists and launched himself forward. Picking a direction at random he pushed forward striking anything and everything that he could. The force of his blows were not deadly to the drones, nor were they as effective as his sword had been. They were however enough to topple those he struck quickly and without exception. As soon as they were down Spider pressed farther forward. Stepping over and on the bodies he toppled he was in a mindless frenzy to push himself past the ranks of Drones that surrounded him. He could not. In moments he found that his frenzy was dying down and there were still drones for as far as the eye could see in the direction he had chosen. Trying desperately to keep his momentum as his mindless frenzy faded He slammed his fist into another drone sending it sprawling to the ground as he stomped hard on another fallen drone's neck. Pushing off of the ground to press even further something caught his leg. An unseen hand wrapped itself around his ankle and held firmly. The sudden unexpected attack caught Spider completely off guard. His momentum carried him forward as his legs stopped suddenly. Agin the world slowed to a crawl as Spider realized what was happening. It was over. He was falling. He was falling and he knew that the drones on all sides would make sure he did not get up.  
  
Psyche was beginning to really hate himself. He had failed his team. In just about every other dangerous situation the anomalies had faced, Callahan had always been the "ace in the hole". It was Psyche that they depended on to protect them. It was Psyche that was expected to be the first to start scoring the big hits and it was Psyche that was always expected to be the last to fall. He had grown accustomed to being the backup plan. He had grown accustomed to being able to simply focus hard and solve all their problems and yet look what was happening now. He had been left to his own with simple instructions. Help Chris protect the station from attacks by the cubes. He was supposed to protect everyone. Instead he thought he would play hero. He thought he would run back and forth checking on each individual anomalies progress. He thought he would be able to abandon Inferno to his task and not worry about anything. He thought he could fly directly into a borg cube following the jet his friends had altered. And while it's true that his actions likely saved Tech and Creature they had also taken him too far from the station to save the help the others on time. Because of his mistake Spider and Sage had been taken. Frenzy and Wraith were unaccounted for and Inferno was so enraged by the events that he burned bigger than anyone could have dreamed. Even though he never saw Inferno in the full blaze that he reached he was already worried by what he saw. Nobody knew the extent of Chris's powers. Nobody knew exactly what he was capable of but he had never been capable of something like that before. What if he burned himself out? What if his energy form depleted and he was left unshielded from the harsh vacuum of space? What would they do then? Psyche couldn't help him if that happened and the knowledge burned away at him. He had no body anymore. In his desperate panicky plan he had allowed himself to be assimilated and now he was trapped free floating in his astral form. In this form he could affect almost nothing in the physical world. And in this form his clock was always ticking. While he would last longer than the others by all probability he wouldn't last forever. He too would burn out from exertion if he couldn't get back to his body eventually. At least he was in the Astral plane however. In the astral plane you are not traveling parallel to the physical world and thus you are not drained as quickly. Still though he could already begin to feel the telltale signs of the drain of exertion. He knew it would be quite a while still before he was noticeably weakened by the drain but he had no idea how he could prevent it from happening. The prospect of fading away to nothingness while his friends still needed him loomed before him like a monolith. Casting it's shadow over his every thought. Even without that fear his thoughts had grown dark. He realized when he arrived that Spider was in great danger. He realized that the drones followed Spider to the astral plane not Psyche and Creature. However he didn't know where Spider was. His preliminary scouting attempts had awarded him no glimpses of his ally. Nor did traveling to the point of origin of the club image that rocketed out to meet them. Spider was nowhere to be found. He would not fail his friend any more than he already had. He refused to. but at the same time he refused to leave Creature. He could not abandon another friend to the collective. He could not speed ahead to find his friend. Instead he had to press forward on foot. Slashing his way through every drone he saw. At first he was troubled by the faces of the enemies he struck. Each drone wore the same bland canvas uniform and each the same blank expression. He knew that each of them were nothing more than mindless drones and yet he couldn't help but be troubled by the unique features of each face. "These used to be people" he thought. "Whatever the borg has done to them they were unique. They were individuals just like me. What makes me more deserving of life than any of them?" To this he had no answers that satisfied him. Over and over he told himself that they weren't individuals any longer. That the collective had stripped them of everything that had been unique. He had witnessed first hand the way the collective smothered the minds of those they assimilated. He had nearly experienced it himself. And yet he wished there was another way. Cutting down unarmed enemies, no matter how mindless or how many just didn't sit right with Psyche. Yet he had no choice but to continue. Not to protect his own life but to protect that of his friend. Of Creature. He had to keep fighting to keep Creature safe and also to find Spider the others. With all this running through his head Psyche may as well have been on autopilot. He was so distracted by his troubles that he was barely paying attention to the hordes that surrounded him. His arms swung back and forth rhythmically trailing the sword he held as they went. He barely paid any attention as drones fell before him in horribly mutilated pieces. Severed limbs and other extremities were thrown into the air in the wake of his blade and came to land all about the imaginary wasteland. Psyche was completely desensitized to it all however. As he continued to perpetuate the slaughter that took place his eyes overlooked the gore entirely as they scanned for his friend. When he found what he was looking for he had no idea. Pushing forward as he had been already doing his eyes continued to scan the field of drones that surrounded them. So quick were the scans of each direction that he nearly overlooked it. A sudden flash of color in a sea of grey. As soon as he had spotted it the object disappeared behind the drones that surrounded it. Still though Psyche had seen it. A patch of yellow. An area of exposed skin. An inch of light brown. And then it had tilted and fell away. Before Psyche had even realized what he had seen he was heading towards it at speed. Cutting down drones faster and more viciously he shoved his way past the drones as the fell wounded and barely checked to make sure Creature was still following him. In seconds he had crossed the distance between himself and the spot he had seen his friend. When he arrived however he again found nothing. Slowing to a stop his mind raced. He had seen Spider! He had seen Chase! The leader of the anomalies had been wearing that same brown leather jacket he always wore instead of his costume as an anomaly. He had been fighting the hordes of drones just as Psyche and Creature had been. And then his body tilted and disappeared from view. As Psyche began moving again he started circling the spot he had seen his friend fall. Watching the plain grey fabric and pale white skin he saw no sign of his friend as he faced outward. Circling again and again, each time wider than the last he found nothing for several agonizing minutes. Again Psyche began to get lost in thought. Again he despaired that he had failed. Again his actions began to lose the motivation they had once had as his despair took hold. When Creature yelled out suddenly Psyche found himself instantly snapped out of it however. Instantly he looked to the source of the sound and saw his friend fall to the ground. In a heartbeat Psyche had crossed the distance to his friend and had cut down nearly a dozen drones that were approaching him. Whipping his sword about in all directions he had created a circle of empty space as he stood over his fallen friend. For a few brief seconds Psyche couldn't spare a second to look down at his friend. He had to focus too much on keeping the drones back and hoping that Creature could get up on his own. When something did get up suddenly it wasn't Creature though. From less than a foot to his side a body shot upwards as if propelled by springs. As it rose a single bare fist rose faster propelled by more than considerable force of will. The fist caught a drone squarely on the chin snapping it's head back fiercely and sending it sprawling to the ground. To his surprise Psyche saw the drone's body fade away before it hit the ground. Apparently killed by the force of the blow. Stunned Psyche stood completely still as he finally looked at the person whom the fist belonged to. Despite all logic he found himself suddenly feeling a little safer when he did. It was his leader. It was Spider. He was alive. "What... what were..." Psyche muttered still in a stunned state. Staring at his friend. "What were you doing on the ground?" Psyche finally managed. "Just decided I'd catch a little bit of a breather" Spider answered as he turned his back on his friend and did his best to force back the drones that approached him. "I was just getting settled in too when Creature tripped over me." he added as he slammed his fist into the face of another grey-clad mindless attacker. Psyche immediately knew the response to be a lie. It was another one of Spider's jokes. At times he hated the way Spider seemed to deflect all serious situations with a relatively witty line or two. And at times he couldn't admire it more. "Despite the fact that we're probably all gonna die, he's cracking jokes!" Psyche thought as he helped Creature regain his feet and they both rejoined the battle. "Hey Andrew why don't you watch where you're going next time." Spider called over his shoulder as he struck another two drones with a pair of identical punches. "Being tripped over isn't exactly the most pleasant awakening" Spider knew the dangers of the situation. He knew that things were just about as bad for the three of them as they could get and he knew that trying to have a conversation in the middle of such a situation might do more harm than good. But nearly five years ago Spider decided that it was just his style to do it. And that his friends would get used to it. He hoped that it would eventually become a kind of motivation. He hoped that he was helping his team improve by forcing them to be able to pay attention to more than one thing at a time. Sometimes it worked. Most often it didn't. And yet even now in what was possibly the most grave situation they had ever faced he was trying to have just such a conversation with Creature. As Psyche overheard this he was simply in awe. Creature was the last person he would expect Spider to joke with like this. Inferno or Sage perhaps. They both had more of an affinity for witty conversation but Creature was more of a focused silent angry kind of guy. Psyche would never expect him to be able to focus on something so pointless and stupid while their lives were at stake. To his credit he surprised Psyche and actually did respond. While it wasn't a witty one-liner like he would have expected from some of the others Creature's point was clear and his delivery was perfect. "Alright Cap'n" he said. "Next time I'll just leave you a sleeping bag and a sign that says quiet please... I'm sure the collective'll respect your need of privacy." at this Spider laughed. It was an unexpected sound that did his two teammates both some good to hear. He was their leader after all. If he didn't look worried then there had to be a reason. "Have you gone nuts?" Psyche asked him when his laughter began to die down. "I mean really? Have you completely lost your mind? What's so funny?" he asked as he spared a glance in Spider's direction. "not at all" the team leader responded. "I'm just relieved that I've found you guys and you can finally get me the hell out of here" Spider had managed to recreate the sword he had been using and was now managing to keep the drones back with relatively little difficulty. He seemed to be at full strength and looked like he would have no trouble keeping his current pace for hours. This appearance, in Psyche's opinion warranted further investigation. Upon that further inspection Psyche saw what he had feared. Spider was just putting on a brave face. He was trying not to look worried for the sake of his friends. Closer inspection revealed his movements to be getting more and more sluggish and his form to be sagging ever so slightly. For the first time Psyche got a sense of how hard his friend had been pushing himself. "he must have been pushing himself like this the whole time" he thought, making sure that his thoughts did not flow outwards like hit others. He also realized that Spider thought that their troubles were genuinely over. That Psyche's arrival was a sign that the problem would be solved. No longer was Spider fighting a losing battle with no hope of surviving. In his mind he had survived the worst of it and it would soon be over. He again had hope and Psyche had to tell him that his hope was false. Again he began to hate himself. Before he said a word he was afraid of the response. "I'm afraid it's not that simple" Psyche said, punctuating each syllable with another swing of his sword. As he spoke he again turned to look at his friend. As the words reached him Psyche noticed his friend's shoulders sag just a little deeper. Even though he said nothing and gave no sign of it Psyche noticed the disappointment. "I was afraid you were going to say that." Spider said. "What's the plan Cal?" he asked flatly. "There is no plan... you and Chantal are assimilated, so is Creature. Inferno's burning hotter than I've ever seen him and I think he might burn out entirely. Tech is on board the disabled cube. He's safe I think but I lost touch with everyone else... I'm sorry." with each word he spoke Psyche's heart sank. He knew how bad it all must sound. How bad it was. And he was telling his friend who depended on him that there was nothing he could do. He knew that Spider must have questions. Question's that Psyche couldn't bear to answer but thankfully he didn't ask them. Instead Spider yelled for his attention. "CAL LOOK!" Spider shouted and as he did he pointed to something out amidst the sea of drone faces. Immediately both Psyche and Creature looked in the direction their friend was pointing. Each taking care to not fully turn their attention away from the drones. Scanning the spot that Spider pointed to he saw nothing. Squinting and looking harder he still could not determine what it was that had spurred Spider to call out so urgently. "What?" he asked quickly. "Didn't you see?" Spider asked and looked back at their puzzled faces. "You didn't see her?" he asked them again. This time there was definitely a more desperate edge to his voice. Psyche began to seriously worry if his friend really was losing his mind. Seeing their puzzled expressions Spider seemed taken aback for a moment. Then suddenly he turned and charged away from them. Before either of them could react he was lost to view. Again lost among the endless legions of drones. "Wait! CHASE!" Psyche yelled after him but it was too late. "Where the hell did he go?" Creature asked suddenly. "What's going on?" and as much as he would hate to admit it Psyche really didn't know. "We have to go after him" Creature shouted. "We can't just let him run out into the middle of them like that." Psyche agreed with him completely but still he made no move to follow. What was he doing? Psyche wondered. It wasn't like Spider to go running off like that without a word of explanation. Hell Spider even told his enemies what he was planning with a measure of overconfidence. Usually though his plans worked. Even without the element of surprise. Psyche hoped that this time would be no different. Still though he worried what was going on in his friend's head. If the stress of the situation had gotten to him... if the whole deal with the borg and the astral plane had finally made his friend snap. Psyche wouldn't know how to deal with that. He couldn't imagine how the team would function without him. At the same time he couldn't imagine how someone like Spider who had no mental powers and really no special affinity for telepathic phenomena could have lasted so long in this. "The amount of pressure he must be under must be incredible" he thought. When Creature saw that Psyche was making no move to follow he was beyond surprised. Creature could not let himself abandon his friend to the drones. He had experienced the way the collective deals with your mind. He would not wish it on his worst enemies less yet his close friend. He would move mountains to save his friend but he knew that he alone couldn't help Spider. He was too weak. His strength had been slowly fading away since the battle began and he was finding it harder and harder to keep the ground he stood on. There was no way he'd be able to push through the drones and help his friend. He wouldn't make it. Still though he was going to try. Forcing himself to push harder he crossed to where Spider had disappeared and was about to charge outwards when Psyche called out. "Wait!" he shouted. "Stay here!" he said as he continued to keep the circle of open space. Whipping his blade about he managed to hold the drones back fairly well. "What about Chase?" Creature asked him, again taking his place holding back the hordes. "He'll be back" Psyche said. "Trust me" he added. And worried whether he could trust himself. He had no reason to believe that Spider could get back to them. He had no reason to believe that he would even try. He hadn't said he'd be back, nor had he given his reason for charging out into the midst of their attackers. And he certainly didn't have any advantage over anyone else in the astral plane. Spider was a lot of things but he wasn't any kind of psychic or telepath. By all odds he shouldn't even be able to stand at this point. He should be too drained by now to keep fighting. He's just normal. But Psyche couldn't help but trust that their leader would be alright. That just this one time he needed them to not come after him. The idea that Psyche was just imagining all this crossed his mind and it tortured him. If Spider died because he didn't go after him to help then Psyche didn't think he'd be able to live with himself. He had to trust him to come back. He had to believe that his friend would be alright. He had to focus on keeping Creature and himself that way or what would it matter? So in that same imaginary spot they remained keeping the drones forced back in all directions as best they could. Between the two of them they managed to force a bit of a clearing in the horde. The drones were held outside of a circle maybe ten feet across and the two anomalies worked as hard as they could to keep it that way. When a drone form suddenly stumbled backwards into their circle Psyche didn't think. Instead he simply turned to kill it. In one fluid movement he brought his blade around and swung it at the staggering form. Suddenly a from directly in front of him made itself heard. The voice was ragged and harsh. A single word spoken in it told a tale of tremendous struggles. "NO!" the voice shouted and something flashed towards his blade. Slowed by the smallest fraction of a second the flashing object hit his sword in the beginning of it's lethal path. The object struck his blade directly and splintered away into nothing having barely slowed his attack at all. Perhaps though it was enough because at the last moment Psyche stopped his attack to figure out what was going on. As it turned out, the edge of his blade stopped less than an inch from the intruding drone's skull. Immediately the drone fell to the ground and lay still on it's back. Immediately after that another form came backwards into their hard earned clearing. This one however was not a drone. It was Spider. He had somehow managed to fight his way back to them from where ever he had gone. What's more, he had brought someone with him. A drone? "What the hell is going on?" Creature asked and Psyche found himself seconding the question. "It's Telli" Spider said in between ragged uneven breaths. "What?" Psyche asked. "The drone ... it's ... Sage" Spider managed and finally collapsed. No longer possessing the strength to keep fighting Spider simply fell to the ground and lay still next to the drone. With a sudden surge of strength Psyche let out a yell and renewed his assault on the drones to keep them back. The blade of his sword seemed to stretch out before him as he swung it cutting down more drones with each swing. With each second his rage grew and more drones fell until a voice from at his feet caught his attention. "Cal... you got the big brain... ... change the scenery" he said with what appeared to be a terrible amount of effort. Afterwards he didn't have the strength to say any more. It took a few moments to realize what it was that Spider meant. Psyche had no idea what Spider meant by change the scenery and his fallen friend was offering no more explanations. The only clue he had given was "you got the big brain" and Psyche's mind raced to determine what it was Spider meant. Then suddenly an idea struck him. Taking a step back he reeled in his mind and focused hard. Letting his mind build up power for a moment as the drones drew closer he finally let everything he had explode outwards. Raising his blade into the air he brought the point down into the ground beneath his feet and immediately the ground shook. I suppose "shook" would not be the most accurate term. Perhaps "quaked" or "pitched violently" or perhaps even "cracked open like a piggy bank that has been hit by a meteorite". The clearing they had formed was divided from the rest of the land by two large fissures that each spread to nearly 25 feet across. The platform itself raised up from the ground and was elevated by at least thirty feet. The fact that it happened so smoothly that none of the anomalies aboard the mobile terrain were thrown is one that is hardest to believe. Instead they all remained on the 12 foot wide rock platform, separate from the legions of zombie like attackers that assailed them. At the base of the platform was a dark, ominous pit that several unsuspecting drones plummeted into never to be seen again. How deep the pit was, one couldn't tell. The bottom was well hidden from view by the lack of light and the considerable distance. As soon as the platform stopped moving Psyche moved to the edge of it and looked outwards. Still for as far as the eye could see the landscape was hidden from view by the countless drones on it now however the land closer to their position was split open and covered in a network of thick fissures and cracks that several drones were still stumbling into. Turning away from the edge he was greeted by the sight of a single drone's fist. While the attacker was smaller than most the blow struck soundly and surprised the hell out of Psyche who thought that all the drones were far below. Because of the surprise Psyche took a step off backwards to gain some distance between him and the drone. However given his position at the time a step backwards was a bad idea since it resulted in him stumbling off the edge of the platform and into the pit below. Stubborn in it's pursuit of the Anomaly the drone moved to follow without hesitation stepped off the edge as well. Surprise doesn't begin to describe what went through the minds of the two other Anomalies atop the platform. Concern and despair are only the beginning of what they felt as they watched two of their teammates plummet into the unknown depths below. The best way to describe their appearance however was just downright stupified. Neither of them expected a double suicide once they got away from the collective. And neither of them expected the forms of the two fallen beings to float back up over the edge of the platform and land gracefully on the elevated rock with the drone effortlessly carried in Psyche's arms. When he set her down she immediately went to strike him again. This time he expected it and made no effort to stop her. Her fist struck the side of his helmet with a loud ringing noise and seemed to do Callahan no harm at all. A second later he placed one finger against the drone's form and she grew still. As Creature and Spider watched the expressionless face of their assimilated friend began to change. The pale grey skin and ragged grey clothes transformed before their very imaginary eyes. In no more than a few moments the drone was once again sage, in all her five foot two (and a half!) Astrally projected glory. As her self control returned she blinked momentarily and quickly looked around. "Astral plane?" she asked as Creature and Spider stared. "Yep" Cal responded. With that she stood up on the platform and looked around. "Looks rough" she said as she surveyed the hordes of mindless drones stretching out in every direction. Then, looking down at the base of the platform she gasped. "My god! Look!" she said as she pointed down over the edge. Immediately they moved to look. All but Spider who didn't have the strength left to stand, less yet stand dangerously near a cliff ledge and peer over the side. As they looked they saw the actions of the drones. Ignoring the chasm at the base of their platform the drones were simply marching towards the Anomalies they hunted. As those in the front of the group reached the edge of the gap they simply fell in and tumbled to their deaths. Oblivious to the danger they marched like lemmings. One after another into the gorge. Soon, as thousands upon thousands of drones fell in they began to pile up at the bottom. Their corpses stacked up upon each other to decrease the length of the drop. In time the drones intended to fill in the hole entirely and probably climb over each other to reach the top of the platform itself. It was horrifying to watch as they willingly marched to their death. Already more than a million drones had fallen to their deaths and still there was no end to them in the distance. Stepping back from the edge the anomalies couldn't help but despair anew. Finally Creature spoke. "How is that happening? When we killed them down there their bodies vanished. I mean they left a little mess but they, themselves disappeared. How can they be stacking up like that?" he asked. Callahan's response came slowly. "I think... I think I changed the rules when I changed the scenery... I think they're changing them too. They're adapting to the astral plane... they've managed to focus enough to let the astral plane see their corpses as just more scenery. So as they fall it builds up" he said. "But wait. If they can change the scenery too then why don't they just make stairs?" Sage asked. "I won't let them. I'm focusing on keeping the landscape as it is at all times. They can't make anything appear." Psyche answered. "But they CAN prevent their bodies from disappearing." Spider said in a voice they barely heard. "So what do we do?". at this nobody (or no-mind rather) spoke. After a brief pause Creature broke the silence. "Who else got taken?" he asked. "By the borg I mean. Who else got assimilated?" it seemed that this too noone knew. "I'll find out." Before he did however he stepped over to the form of his severely weakened teammate. Placing his palm on Spider's chest he focused. There was a faint orange glow as the psionic energy at Psyche's disposal transferred to Spider. When he was done Spider seemed better, somehow more real looking as though before he was being seen through a fog. Removing his hand from it's place on his friend's chest he offered his other hand to help Spider to his feet. Taking the hand Spider pulled himself to his feet and looked around. "Wow" he said. "How much energy do you got in you Cal?" "Enough hopefully" Psyche responded and turned to place his palms on either of the other two Anomalies. In moments the three relatively normal minded beings were restored to their full strength. Turning away from them Callahan sat down in the center of the platform and let his mind stretch out. The amount of psionic energy he had expended already HAD in fact drained him considerably but he thought nothing of it. Instead he focused on helping his friends. His own well being could wait. Focusing the energies he had left he reached to outside of the astral plane for the minds of his friends. When he found one it wasn't the one he expected. Psyche had been looking for Chris. Inferno was by far the fastest of the Anomalies and was thus best suited for what needs to be done. However Inferno was not found within the range of Psyche's mind-sweep. Not pausing to think about it he settled for the ally he did find. It was Tank. "Nariman!" he called out directly into the other's mind. Immediately the gigantic Anomaly responded. "Psyche! Thank god you gotta help!-" before he could finish Psyche cut him off. "You first. I need you to find all of the team that's been assimilated. It's too important to explain in detail just go find their bodies... NOW! Chase and Chantal are already taken care of, so are Jason and Andrew, Chris isn't around and wasn't assimilated. That leaves Wraith and Frenzy get to them quick!" again Tank responded immediately. "Done I got frenzy right here... he's been taken and he's not breathing. You can help him right?" this time there was a pause. "Are you touching him? I need you to be in physical contact with the body" at this Tank nodded. Then mentally kicking himself for the stupidity of the gesture (the mental self abuse may or may not have been noticed by Callahan, if it was he didn't say anything.) He answered. "Yeah I got him... you CAN help right?" again a pause... ... "I cant detect any life around you Tank. There's no mind at all" after only the briefest noticeable pause Tank responded. "He's dead then... alright... Wraith was in the b-deck last time you relayed us I'll head there to look for her." with that he stood up off of the floor of the corridor he was on, gently placed the still body of his former ally on the ground and rushed away. At the nearest elevator Tank stopped. He didn't bother pressing the button. Nor did he hesitate for any noticeable length of time, instead he ripped the door to the elevator shaft from the wall tossed it aside and leaped into the shaft beyond.  
  
It took only a few minutes for the medical crew on board the Avenger to determine the truth about Chris. The initial scans showed that his form was identical to that of a male human being but the problem was that beyond his basic anatomy they couldn't determine anything. He didn't have DNA nor did he have anything that resembled it. It turned out that his body was made up of some form of condensed solid energy. And inside his body right next to his heart was an object that was made of the same thing but contained more energy than any star yet discovered by humanity. In it was basically the essence of Chris. The rest was little more than a self contained holographic projection. (Although that's not what he'd have you believe.) After the scan results came in Chris was in too much of a hurry to be shocked. "Well my body's human right? I told you what happened shouldn't that be enough?" he asked the captain. The captain paused at this. He pondered briefly the possibility of it being a lie. After all the entity before him could have scanned the life forms on board his ship and emulated their bodies. It could have even plucked the word earth from their minds and made up it's story from there. As though Chris had heard his thoughts he spoke again. "Think about it! You never detected me scanning you guys, you know I'm the sole source of the energy disturbances you picked up, what would I have to gain from lying? Why would I trap you when I could just do what I want to you're ship any-damn-where-I-want? What would be the point of luring you back?" seeing the point of the young Anomaly's words the captain tapped his comm badge and spoke briefly to his bridge crew. "Beattie to helm. Take us back to the location of the Anomaly" "aye sir" came a voice from the other side of the communication and the ship turned around.  
  
Climbing out of the elevator shaft several floors above where he had entered, Tank looked around. He was on the b-deck just like he had planned but nothing looked familiar to him. Not only did he have no idea where to find anything aboard the strange space station he occupied but he also had no idea where to start his search for the wayward Wraith. Pausing only briefly to ponder he picked a direction at random and wandered down it. When he came across a group of injured and weary crewmen he quickly questioned them. "Where's Wraith?" he demanded of the closest officer. "Human girl about six feet tall, brown hair, walks through walls, where is she?" after some brief murmuring among themselves one of the group spoke up. "she went through a wall back in a corridor by the life pods... the way she went she would have ended up in the mess hall.. That's the last anyone saw of her." seconds later Tank was running in the direction of the mess hall. Not asking for anymore directions than simply pointing in the direction of the mess hall he went that way. He didn't follow the corridors however. Instead he went through walls just as swiftly as Wraith had before him. The difference being he left holes in the walls behind him.... big holes. Moments later Tank had found the mess hall. Crashing through one wall he ran directly into the hole in the floor of it. Before he had time to react he had landed heavily on his front on the floor beneath the hall. Shocked but only briefly he quickly raised himself up out of the ten foot wide dent he had left in the floor on which he landed and looked around. The room around him was chaotic at best. All but a small part of the floor above had been torn away by explosions and weapons fire and the floor that remained held up a small group of desperately outnumbered UED officers. The floor on which Tank stood also held up nearly a hundred drones each ignoring him in favor of the more vulnerable targets above. "Ignoring me is a mistake you'll regret you stupid inbred human-toaster hybrids" Tank shouted. His shouts fell on deaf ears however as the drones continued to ignore him. For a moment he wondered if on some level the borg actually would regret it. He doubted the particular drones that he watched would. They weren't going to live long. But the collective consciousness itself? Would it regret messing with the Anomalies when the bodies were counted? Tank hoped so as he moved into action. As quickly as he could Tank began grabbing drones one by one, glancing at their faces and then breaking them. Until he found the particular drone he searched for he wasn't interested in the others. Instead he disabled them quickly and brutally, tossed them aside and moved on. He found Wraith after only a few moments. Not knowing whether he should be relieved that he had found her or whether he should despair that she was a drone he simply picked her up under one arm picked up another drone with his other one and used it to smash every other drone he could to bits. When the drone/club broke completely he discarded it in favor of a new one. In less than five minutes he had disabled (most likely permanently) every drone in the room. Having done so he called out. "Got her Cal, can you help her?" the response came immediately. "Yes but it wont look like much. Just hold on to her till she stops moving, then find a way to get to the remaining borg cube and find Jason. When you find him tell him to get to work reversing the assimilations. Tell him to be sure to fix me last though. I'm needed here." at that point the voice went silent and orange energy lanced out of Tank's forehead. Pouring over the body of the drone he held she simply glowed with the orange energy that any Anomaly would recognize as Cal's psionic power.  
  
Rising to his feet Psyche called out to the others. "Find a bright orange light!" and stepped to the edge of the platform. "Wraith should be glowing orange... Bright! Find her!" he half yelled as he desperately scanned the legions of drones that still marched to their deaths below them. Immediately they all stepped to the edge as well at different points around the platform. All searching desperately long minutes passed before any of them spoke. The suddenly Creature called out. "THERE! CAL LOOK!" he said pointing frantically. Moving to his side Psyche followed the line of Creature's arm to a faint orange glow on the ground far below. The drone that it covered was too far to make out clearly but they all knew who it was. And the fact that it was moving swiftly to the edge along with all the other drones made none of the Anomalies happy. Acting without hesitation Psyche dove. Speeding downward he raced with all the speed he could muster to catch the glowing drone below. Less than a second after he began his dive the drone staggered out into the air below the platform and fell. Almost immediately her form was lost from view behind the countless other drones that fell along with her. The others watched as Psyche flew as fast as he could straight down towards the lost orange glow. Soon he too was lost from view. What would happened next none could really say as none of them had anything resembling a clear view of things. Everyone knew however, that it was going to be extremely close no matter how things went.  
  
The USS AVENGER again slid onto the scene swiftly and silently. This time without fear of what the scene may contain. With all due haste the ship flew into the middle of things and once there stopped and hastily surveyed things. What they saw none of them expected. The last borg cube was active again. The ship was still heavily damaged and had barely any systems operating but was still moving under it's own power. And where it was moving was directly towards the damaged station. The cube was on a collision course with the UED station. It was going to crash and kill everyone on board both the station and the cube. Immediately the crew of the avenger began to act. The bridge was filled with movement and the sound of Captain Beattie's commands "I want that ship stopped. Charge weapons!" he said to his crew. Immediately Chris protested "What?!? you can't! Some of my friends are on board!" "If we don't then it'll kill everyone including many more innocent humans on board the station." answered the captain. "Target the engines, prepare to fire" the captain commanded. "Sir the ship is too heavily damaged" said a slightly portly officer from off to one side. "If we hit it hard enough to take out the engines then the whole thing will be destroyed." he stated. "Prepare to fire" the captain repeated. "On my mark..." "NO!" Inferno shouted. A bright red glow in his eyes indicated that he meant it. "Captain if you destroy that cube then your ship won't survive the consequences" he warned. "Try something else" the captain paused. His gaze shifted from the view-screen depicting the cube's descent upon the station and the red burning man suddenly standing next to him. "Or what? You'll destroy this ship? You'll kill everyone on board?" the captain demanded. "Since you went out of your way to come get us to save these lives it surprises me that you would destroy us. Along with the people on the station who need our help. That's what you're saying though isn't it? That if we try to help like you asked then you'll kill us all. Tell me... is that the kind of thing a "super hero" does where you come from?" before Inferno could respond the captain turned to his crew and made his decision.  
  
Psyche hadn't hesitated. Even when the glow was lost from sight among the falling bodies of the other drones he still had sped downward. He dove into their midst as they dove to their deaths. Immediately his vision was completely blocked by the bodies that fell all around him. All he could see was a tangle of arms and legs. All he could hear was the rush of air around him and the sound of falling borg impacting into each other as they fell. As he passed them they reached out to him. Even as their lives ended they sought to destroy him. Clutching at his limbs and striking at him wherever they could reach, the drones were slowing him. Less than a second had passed since he had dove into their midst and yet it felt like hours. Already he feared that it had been far too long. That he would not find his teammate before she met her end far below. The borg attacks were starting to hurt more and more as the hammered down upon his body. He was tiring. The seemingly limitless energies he had possessed were being stretched to their limit. Psyche began to fear for his own life. Pressed to his limits by fatigue and pain he began to forget about his plans for rescue. No longer was his determination to save his friends fueling him. Now only fear was left. Only the need to escape this tangle of limbs and the death that awaited him below. In two more seconds the borg would be past his defenses. In one more second he would strike the ground below. In half a second his fear would overwhelm him and he would panic. Now he caught a glimpse of orange among the grey. Instantly something inside him makes him reach out to it. He catches hold of something as panic arrives. Abandoning his rescue attempt he puts all his strength into stopping his fall, reversing it. Against the flow of bodies he pushes. Forces himself upwards despite the crushing weight of the borg and the stubborn pull of gravity. They clutch at him still. Adding their weight to his, pulling him down. Even as he breaks free of the chasm and pushes further upwards above the ground they still hang from his body. Still his sight is obscured by bodies. The pain of their assaults have numbed him. His mind is far from in control now. Now there is only fear. Fear and instinct. He lashes out. The bodies that cling to him are thrown. He is free. Hundreds of feet above the ground he pauses. Lets his mind catch up with events. Recollecting himself he looks downward. First he sees the bodies that had grabbed at him falling back to the earth below. Then the platform that keeps his friends safely from the danger of the collective. Then the struggling form of another grey body held in his arms. Then finally the faint orange glow that surrounds the body. As his mind finally regains control he understands. It was Wraith. He had done it. When all thought had abandoned him and fear had made him flee he had kept hold of her. Despite the added weight and the further risk instinct had kept his grip strong. Floating downward he landed again on the platform. Without a word to the others he placed one hand on the forehead of the drone he had carried. Focusing his mind he reached within. It was then that the world around him vanished and everything went dark.  
  
Tech was worried. Callahan had always been the least vulnerable of the team. He had always been the most formidable. Always been nearly invincible. And now he has been beaten. Tech had watched as the borg drone had pierced Psyche with his assimilating tentacles. He had watched as Psyche had lost consciousness. Falling to the ground he had stopped moving altogether and the drones had returned to other work. Ignoring the assimilated intruders they had returned to work repairing the ship. It was because of this that Tech was still alive. He had been running out of ammo, running out of energy, running too tired to keep going as he had been. When they assimilated him though they left him alone. Left him to his own devices. Left him to save the day. Now he was going to do just that. For long minutes he had collected pieces of debris and wrecked bits of machinery. For long minutes he had worked on the device that would save them. Within his own body he could change machines around at will. He could construct almost anything without needing many materials. For other devices though things were different. He needed materials with which to construct his inventions. And even though he could manipulate the materials vastly to be able to utilize almost anything it had still been difficult to gather together the things he needed. Especially since everywhere he went drones were doing repairs. He had done it now though. He had finished the device and was prepared to use it. Stooping over the still form of the assimilated Psyche he attached the harness-like device to his chest and activated it. In moments the device would repair the damage done by the nano-probes and sever the hold that the collective had over him. The device would bring Psyche back. After activating the device Tech turned his attention away from the fallen Anomaly and focused on a nearby control panel. Since he had set foot on the cube he had been slowly infiltrating the cube's systems. He had needed a to find a major control panel to load his virus into the systems but hacking in himself was a little easier. His mind could remotely access almost any computer system and give commands but to load new data into the system required a physical link. Especially when there were so many systems in the cube's computers designed to stop just such an upload. In any case though he was inside the system now. He had control. Encoding the commands he sent in the common borg manner he used the ship's communications array to command the drones on board. It was basically just a high tech version of disguising his voice but it worked. Possibly because of all of the chaos or possibly because the commands were originating from a borg cube the drones accepted his commands and did as he wanted. Instead of the weapons systems that they had previously been working on he had them repair the engines first. Once they had done so he had taken control of the helm and began to move the ship. He would dock against the station. Carry creature and Psyche off of the ship and then command the ship to fly to a safe distance and overload the warp core. With any luck the drones wouldn't see past his deception till it was too late and he would be safely away from them on the station with his friends. Then they could do what they needed to do to get back home without the danger of the borg. With any luck, however didn't seem correct. He had luck but it wasn't good. Before the cube had crossed half the distance between itself a ship appeared. Without the cube's external communication systems online he had no chance at explaining himself. Before he could do anything the ship had charged weapons. As Tech checked the scanners his fears were confirmed. The ship was targeting him. As he watched the display in horror they ship fired.  
  
Nariman Deravi had, had enough. There was a difference between the everyday dangers that the anomalies faced. He was un-phased by most challenges and had never shied away from the hard stuff before. But then again he had never really come close to dying before. He had now. The near asphyxiation he had experienced was not pleasant and worse it had prevented him from saving one of his team. Frenzy. While he was not ready to believe that Frenzy was dead, and denial was still running rampant in his head he couldn't deny that Ameer had been seriously injured. Other members of the team had also apparently suffered similar fates. Wraith at least had been assimilated like Frenzy and Callahan had mentioned that nobody else was within the reach of his scan. That couldn't be a good sign. So now his determination was at a state it had never been before and his psychological state, while probably very complex, could most simply be described as pissed. He had thought up his plan while on the move. While the logical part of his brain told him that, that fact wasnt a good thing he dismissed the doubts with the argument that it often worked for their leader Chase. And hell, Nariman was much bigger than Chase is. How could anything go wrong? He had found the cargo hold and had figured out how to open the cargo doors before the logical part of his brain could come up with an counter to his argument. As a result he had taken a deep breath and leaped out into space just in time to have his first doubts about his plan. The leap had been a mighty one however, and despair only caused him to freeze up for a second or two. All things considered, this plan was going pretty good. He had taken a deep breath so his super strong lungs would sustain him for much longer than the last time he had been exposed to the vacuum and his leap had been well aimed. He was going more or less straight toward the cube, miles across the void from him. Unfortunately the last part of his plan was becoming more and more in doubt. Originally he had intended to turn himself around and propel himself via his shoulder cannons to catch the cube. It had not only been his plan for crossing the distance quickly but was also his only means of guiding himself should the aim of his original leap be imperfect. Had he thought about it further, he would have realized that turning around would not be as easy one might think. He had attempted to turn around as one would in mid-air on a planet. Instead he found himself in an endless uncontrollable spin. Very quickly his resolve crumbled and panic set in. His thoughts were hectic and for the most part irrelevant, but Nariman had a tendency to think about things like lunch and song lyrics when he was spinning out of control in an endless expanse of space (or at least that was his explanation when he told the story later on). Then, somewhere between a ham sandwich and the bloodhound gang's "I hope you die" an idea came to him. Immediately he charged his left shoulder cannon to full power and fired. As he had hoped it had stopped his clockwise spin immediately. Unfortunately it also reversed it. Now he was spinning to the left. Sighing inwardly (if he actually let himself sigh he'd asphyxiate quite quickly so he just imagined sighing instead) he charged his right cannon this time to only half power and let the shot loose. It worked. The bolt of plasma shot off into space stopping his spin entirely. Looking about quickly as he continued to float through the void he noticed several things that he hadn't noticed before. One: there was now a federation ship hovering some distance to his relative right, Two: the borg cube he had jumped towards was moving, Three: by some infinitesimal chance the two blasts he had fired to control himself had gone on to strike both the cube and the federation vessel squarely, and Four: the federation ship was beginning to fire in response. Now while Nariman was no engineer, nor was he in any way familiar with borg technology, even he could easily tell that the borg cube was crippled and wouldn't be able to take much punishment. If the Avenger fired upon the Borg cube then it would surely be destroyed along with everyone on it. Including his friends. He didn't hesitate at all to act. Carefully he charged both his cannons and timed himself as perfectly as he could. He fired both cannons, one after the other. First the right, then the left so quickly that it turned him 90 degrees and stopped him there. Now he was facing the federation ship which had it's weapons visibly charged. Sighing again to himself without actually parting his lips he charged his cannons again aimed at the Avenger and fired.  
  
Chris hadn't been given much time to react. When the first shot hit the ship he was thrown to the floor of the bridge just like everyone else. Whatever it was that hit them, it caused massive damage all throughout the ship even though shields had been at full. Now with the ship's shields at less than ten percent and scanners practically totaled the Avenger couldn't even tell for sure where the blast had come from. Although it seemed to Chris that Captain Beattie had already drawn his conclusions on that. As the captain regained his feet along with the rest of them he was already barking out orders to destroy the cube. "FIRE DAMMIT FIRE!" he shouted as the tactical officer reached for his control panel. It didn't take even a second for Chris to make his decision. In the time it took for the tactical officer to regain his feet and acknowledge his captain's orders Inferno was gone. Bursting into his burning form in the middle of the bridge he overloaded every control panel on the bridge and burned his way clear through the ship's monitor and outer hull into the void. Beyond. As soon as he was out of the ship a green glow caught his attention. At first he thought it was coming from the cube, just as the crew of the Avenger had predicted but when that green glow suddenly lanced out in twin green bolts he immediately recognized it. It was Tank! Propelling himself as fast as he was able he absorbed the plasma bolts before they crossed even half the distance to the federation vessel. Continuing towards his mighty teammate he didn't bother slowing. Instead he caught hold of one of Tank's shoulder cannons, extended his communications beam towards Tank's head and dragged him on to the borg cube. Upon reaching the hull of the cube he stopped and let Tank go with the passing message. "FIND TECH AND CREATURE AND PSYCHE!" then turning his attention back to the Avenger he was struck full in the face with a photon torpedo. Catching him by surprise the blast sent him flying backwards into the cube after his friend. Though the energy from the blast did him no harm the force of it threw him out of control and in the confusion he neglected to increase the protective burn of his Inferno form. Consequently slamming backwards and head first into a high density energy storage unit at a couple hundred miles per hour was enough to make everything go black for poor Chris.  
  
When he awoke everything was different. As his memory struggled to keep up with the events leading up to his loss of consciousness he realized that he should have been lying in a tangle of shattered bits of metal, not lying on a comfortable bed in what looked like a jail cell with one wall missing. In his groggy state it took him a moment to recognize the particular jail-cell- like room he was in. It was a Star Trek styled ship's brig. When he looked he could even determine where the force-field should be. As realization of where he was sunk in he quickly went through several emotional transitions. First amusement, then confusion, then anger, then fear. Finally just before outright panic set in someone entered the room. Not through the door or through the space where the force-field should have been but through the very wall next to him. Leaping to his feet and bursting into his burning form once again he prepared to defend himself as quickly as he could. Extending one arm outward in the direction of the intruder and preparing a single blast that not only would have stopped his intruder but would have also vaporized her and a large part of the ship behind her he recognized the girl just before he let loose his flaming death beam. "Wow there buddy! I just came to see how you were doing." she said holding her arms out disarmingly before her. "Wraith?!? What are you doing here? What happened?" Chris began letting his burn drop away once more. "What happened to the others?" after a moments hesitation she began to explain. When Tank was dropped onboard the borg cube it only took him a moment to find Tech and the others. Right as he did however the ship blew up. The Avenger, having made up it's mind about the cube had fired again after the first torpedo had been stopped by Chris's energy enveloped face. The second shot, as predicted had pushed the already crippled ship over the edge and it blew to bits. However right as this had happened Psyche had been dragged kicking and screaming out of the astral plane by Tech's cure to assimilation and had somehow managed to shield the Anomalies from the blast, as well as contain a large part of it so the UED station remained relatively intact. The station was still too damaged to contain life for long and the people on board had to be moved to the Avenger where the ship's crew did what they could to aid the survivors. The survivors they found included the previously assimilated Spider, Sage and Wraith. The Anomalies that were on board the cube were even spotted floating in space and were beamed aboard the ship too. All of the Anomalies were in critical condition though and the ship's crew were doing their best to repair the damages they had suffered however, in the case of Spider, Sage, Creature and Wraith their minds seemed more damaged than their bodies. Due to their situation in the astral plane their mind were in an extremely weakened state and Psyche had to bring them back into the waking world personally. It seemed that it wasn't easy for him either because as soon as he had done so he collapsed and was still resting in some living quarters the captain had provided him with. The ships doctor claimed that there was nothing wrong with Psyche though and he only needed to rest. It seemed everyone would recover from assimilation except... At this point in her explanation Sarah stopped. It seemed as though she either didn't know how to phrase the next part or wasn't willing to say it out loud. Chris however was starting to put it together. "What about Frenzy? You didn't say anything about him. What happened to Ameer?" as he asked he began to fear that he already knew the answer. "After the blast only the eight of you could be found." came a new voice from the doorway. "We searched the station thoroughly, both in person and via scans, there was nobody left." Looking over Chris was surprised to see Captain Beattie standing there watching him. The captain seemed somber about it and showed no sign of being angry at Chris who had previously totaled his ship's bridge. It seemed that after the situation had been fully explained to the captain he appreciated Inferno's opinion on the matter, maybe he even respected Inferno's decision to nearly destroy the ship and expose the bridge crew to the harsh vacuum of space for a few brief seconds as the ship's emergency systems patched up the hole he had left in his wake. In truth however he was extremely angry at the young man standing before him but kept his anger hidden for two main reasons. One: this young man, along with his teammates were unbelievably powerful and even in their relatively weakened state could pose a substantial threat to what was left of his ship and it's crew. And Two: because the young man named Jason Hedge a.k.a Tech had, (in light of Spider's suggestion) offered to both repair the damages to his ship and upgrade all the Avenger's systems by 25 percent. Because of those two main reasons he struggled to remain as hospitable as possible but it was because of another reason that he offered to help the Anomalies after the repairs were made. That reason was much harder to define. Later on he would suspect it was due to the telepathic influence of the Anomaly Psyche (which wasn't the case but people tend to get paranoid around people with telepathy... poor Cal, he gets blamed for everything) but it seemed at the time that it just seemed right. These young men and women were involved in something that noone would likely ever understand and though right and wrong were nearly impossible to determine in the case of their quest, helping them seemed right. So he did.  
  
In three days the repairs and upgrades to the Avenger were complete and they were ready for travel again. Until then nothing unusual had occurred. The UED officers and Anomalies on board were extended every possible hospitality during their stay on board including quarters (that were slightly cramped due to the heavily increased number of passengers), food, shelter, information of all sorts and access to every area of the ship (under the supervision of assigned officers in the case of visits to the bridge or the engineering bay) including the holodecks. After a brief visit to a few of the more popular holodeck programs Creature had found himself right at home in combat with the skeleton like creatures and various other grotesqueries of the Klingon personal combat programs, while the other anomalies enjoyed everything from Sherlock Holmes mysteries to tropical cruises on alien planets. After the three days had passed the ship set a course for a planet a few days away where the UED soldiers could meet up with the rest of their people. The base they were heading for was another week away though and the people on board were getting more than slightly antsy with the cramped quarters, decreased rations and less and less to do daily. Soon boredom was running at near fatal levels and everyone was looking for some change in events. After 4 days of travel their change came. Calling the senior UED officers and all of the Anomalies to the bridge Captain Beattie was making an announcement that they had detected a sizable spacial anomaly (he used the term with no small amount of hesitation in light of his company and despite his care to avoid confusion Spider still turned it into a fat joke at Nariman's expense) that they intended to investigate. The decision wasn't questioned by anyone when the captain informed them that the "anomaly" in question happened to be a planet that had apparently appeared out of nowhere about a day or so out of their way to the UED station along with a star that made it comfortably inhabitable. The decision was also hardily endorsed when he mentioned that the planet seemed an exact geographical copy of earth.  
  
Their last day aboard the avenger was more than a little hectic. Between meetings and heated discussions about the random arrival of earth and the training in the holodeck that Spider was demanding of his team, they barely had time to eat. After some discussion with Captain Beattie a plan of investigation was made. The Avenger would stay in orbit of the anomalous earth and run every scan and test they could to attempt to ascertain how it had appeared there. Meanwhile the Anomalies would work alongside an away team to attempt to investigate the planet from up close. Judging by immediate scans the planet was both earth and something new. The bio-scans that the Avenger had taken indicated that there were approximately six billion people on the surface and that they were almost exclusively human. A large percent of the humans on the planet however, had something strange about them. The long distance scans couldn't determine what exactly it was, but something was not quite right about them in relation to the average human bio-signature. Also the energy readings from the planet's surface were chaotic. Radiation levels, weapons signatures, heat levels and communications signals were all off, all over the planet. Earth from the time-line of the crew of the Avenger was an extremely diversely populated planet. Virtually every species in the known galaxy was represented somewhere in the population and the energy readings and communications were well under control by the technology that the people of earth had at it's disposal. Also the population distribution was all off. This planet's people were still separated into countries and cities that were all apparently still separately run from each other. This was not the case in what should have been present day. Instead it looked more like the Earth of the Anomalies' time. Even though there was no evidence of temporal displacement in the area this was the conclusion they had drawn. It was also the reason that the Anomalies were allowed to participate in the investigation. Determining where on the planet's surface to send the away team was a decidedly different matter. It was decided when a large energy fluctuation was detected on the surface. The energy was some form of radiation leak that none of the Avenger's science crew could identify. The source of it was in the Rocky mountains in what was still Canada on the Anomalies' earth. The Captain couldn't exactly tell them where it was in relation to other cities, he would only say that it was several miles away from any cities. The Anomalies didn't argue the point, nor did they try to get anymore details. They were simply eager to get back on to earth. What happened then they would deal with when they got there. Even Chase who usually insisted on having a plan wasn't particularly interested in making one. They would be teleported to the surface, a mile south of the energy fluctuations and would travel the surface on foot till they found the source and determined what it was. It seemed simple enough and they had no intention of worrying about what came after that. They only intended to cross that metaphorical bridge as they came to it. They would come to it soon.  
  
After a brief orientation on away mission regulations and the issuing of a couple days worth of emergency rations the investigation was ready to begin. Stepping onto the teleportation platform the 8 remaining Anomalies and the five Federation officers watched as the world disappeared around them and was replaced by a relatively dense Canadian forest. Without any hesitation the Star fleet officers removed their scanning equipment and began their investigation. It took the Anomalies slightly longer to get adjusted. Being teleported was something that none of them (except wraith) were used to (and even she didn't like it). In a few moments however they were adjusted and ready to begin their search. Taking command of the situation Spider ordered Creature to take point with his "eyes and ears wide open" and for Tech to assist the Federation officers with their scans in any way he could. The rest of them were only needed to keep up. They set out at a brisk walk (aside from Sage Psyche and Wraith who decided they'd rather fly) that any average person could have maintained for at least an hour or so. They didn't have to though, after only a few minutes of travel Creature stopped them. Stepping to catch up to Andrew Spider asked what was wrong. "Something's up ahead" Creature responded. "What?" Spider asked. "I don't know, the smell's new to me but judging by it I don't want to go see." Creature said cautiously. "Ask Jason or Cal to find out." he added. Despite Creature's suggestion Spider decided to check it out himself. Signaling for the others to wait where they were, he triggered the mental command that spread his costume out from within his "watch" in seconds he was clad entirely in black with only a few patches of silver and white where his Spider symbols and features showed through, and was several meters off the ground in the trees overhead. The day was slightly chilled as it came to a close around them, and the sun was already partially shielded from view by the clouds. Moving slowly and stealthily he reached the edge of a clearing. Sensing nothing from his spider sense he slowly lowered himself to the ground and looked about the edge of the clearing from the shadows at one side. Seeing nothing, he moved forward. Carefully parting bushes as he moved he stepped from the concealment of the trees into the center of the clearing. Standing ready for anything he still sensed nothing. Then he heard a snap. Looking quickly to one side he watched as something staggered into view moving trees and brush aside as it did so. Crouching and watching carefully the thing hadn't noticed him yet. As it stepped out of the shadows into the clearing as it did Spider finally got a good look at it. As he did it took several long seconds before what he saw registered. The thing was man shaped, it had all the basic features that separated man from animals, two arms, two legs, two eyes, ears, nostrils etc. its extremities, and hair and such were all in the right place for it to still be human, but there were two things wrong. One was that it was big. Far too big to be a man despite the shape of it, the thing stood about 12 feet tall and was more muscular than anything Spider had ever seen. The second thing was it was green. Skin, hair, eyes, all of it was tinted the same jade color that no human ever wore as it's own. As it lumbered into the clearing heedless of the world around it, it stopped suddenly. Something had given it pause. Struck suddenly with fear Spider was sure the thing had noticed him. No, not the thing he chided himself, The thing's old sparring buddy, Thats the bloody hulk!. As he watched in awe the giant green monstrosity looked up and again Spider was sure it had noticed him. Feeling suddenly very exposed in the middle of a clearing in the woods dressed in black and silver with still so much light around he crouched lower knowing that it made no difference. It had seen him, his spider sense confirmed that, with that constant buzz he always felt when something was watching him. His sense warned him both of the attention of the massive green creature and of the danger it posed. Although it was not attacking him directly it still triggered his warning sense just by being nearby. It was like standing near a camp fire, its no immediate threat to you but you instinctively know how bad it could hurt you. This thing could hurt him bad. He didn't even need his spider sense to tell him that, it was the bloody hulk for god's sake! Much to his surprise though the jade giant soon turned his attention away from the crouched black-clad lean figure that stood so close to him. Instead it looked past him to the far edge of the clearing. Wondering what it saw there, Spider couldn't turn his eyes away from it till he heard another distinctive crack of twigs snapping. Cautiously he turned away from the monstrously powerful entity before him and in a fog of disbelief he watched as something else entered the clearing on the opposite side from the first. This creature wasn't however nearly as human. Standing a meager 8 feet tall and covered from head to toe in shaggy white fur it's muscular body moved in a graceful, fluid manner that only hinted at the power and speed that it possessed. After a moment he Spider recognized this creature too as it looked first at him, then at the hulk behind him and paused. It was the Wendigo. A savage nearly unstoppable mythical monster that happens to be the result of a curse on anyone who tastes human flesh. Which means that despite the danger it posed the thing was likely innocent. Probably some poor explorer that got trapped in the mountains or something and had to make some hard decisions about survival. Either that or some Hannibal wannabe that just got really unlucky. Whichever the case Spider knew that there was a man inside there that had no control over it's actions. A man that he really didn't want to hurt. Trying to stay as perfectly still as he could, Spider's mind was racing at it's absolute top speed. These things weren't real. They were Marvel characters. Things from the comic books he had grown up with. They couldn't be here, he couldn't fight them. But then again a week ago he would have said the same about characters from the video games he had encountered. Over the last few days he had battled, giant robots, alien invaders, futuristic military forces both from a popular video game and from an even more popular television show and three of his own teammates. If you told him that would have happened a week ago he probably would have laughed in your face. Still, it didn't change the fact that he was standing between two very powerful beings who didn't like each other very much and happened to have very big, very violent tempers. Each of these creatures were like walking time bombs, at any second they could go off and do immense damage to each other (as well as anything around them for like 50 miles) and Spider really didn't want that to happen while he was anywhere in the area. Alright Chase think! Wait which hulk is this? Maybe you can reason with him, calm him down. Maybe even end this whole thing without violence. The thought nearly made him laugh out loud but it was the only one he could come up with under the circumstances. Making his decision finally he stood up, snapping the attention of both entities right back to him. The warning buzz of his Spider sense warned him that everyone was getting fairly tense and things were still spinning wildly towards a really big brawl. Raising his arms he held them out disarmingly and turned towards the massive, powerful, incredible unbelievably real hulk. After a second to collect his incredibly hectic thoughts he spoke. "Hello... umm listen umm Hulk can I call you Hulk? Never mind forget it, what else would I call you? But yeah, umm, listen it's alright, I'm not your enemy, I don't want to hurt you or anything. I just umm... I just want.... what do I want?..." throughout this the green goliath watched him expressionless. It didn't seem to be listening to him but it wasn't ignoring him either. It just watched him silently then began to move forward. "Wait! No! Don't fight him, it whatever, don't hurt it, it's just an innocent human being. It doesn't want to hurt anyone!" the argument however, went unheeded as the Hulk continued forward no longer paying any attention to the tiny human in the black mask in his way. "WAIT!" Spider yelled as the Hulk closed the distance between them. Standing no more than two feet away from him the hulk stopped and looked down at him again, still expressionless. Suddenly his spider sense screamed a warning in the back of his head nearly causing him to lose all control of his bowels. Bracing himself for impact and ducking down as fast as he could he seemed to just blink from one position to the next. Reflexes taking over he moved out of the way faster than the human eye could have followed. However there were no entirely human eyes watching him at the time. Only the gamma irradiated behemoth in front of him and the mythical monster known as the Wendigo whipping through the space Spider had previously occupied and slamming clawed hands first into the Hulk's face. With a ear drum piercing roar the beast slammed into the distracted Hulk causing him to stagger backwards a few feet. Immediately the creature began clawing viciously at the Hulks face and neck for a second it seemed that the attack would be enough to fell the jade giant as he continued to stagger under the ferocity of the Wendigo's assault. At the last minute however the Hulk stopped staggering and stood up straight. Reaching up with one hand it gripped the Wendigo around it's waist and ripped it from it's position clawing and biting at the hulk's flesh. With a roar of his own and an impressive display of force the hulk brought it's other hand rocketing upwards into the Wendigo's snarling face with an impact that shook leaves from the trees around them. As the beast's head snapped back and it lay stunned in the Hulk's unbreakable grip the monster known as the Hulk brought it back in one arm and hurled it into the woods at the far end of the clearing fast enough for it to splinter trees as it went. Not waiting for it to get back up and come at him again the Hulk started after the creature with no small amount of rage reflected in his eyes. Reacting before he had time to think about it Spider leaped into the Hulk's way. It was only as he yelled "Stop" and braced both his hands against the Hulks hands in a vain attempt to stop it that his thoughts caught up with him. No you idiot! Don't be aggressive! What the hell's wrong with you? Before his thoughts could come up with an answer however, the hulk justified the thought's with an action. Taking his attempt at stopping the Hulk as an attack he brought both his hands up above his head and brought them slamming down into the earth where Spider had been standing. Moving as fast as he possibly could Spider dove to the side and marveled at how fast the Hulk's attack had been. While his Spider sense, speed, agility and reflexes had made him far to fast to be struck by the blow, he was surprised at just how fast the attack had been. He didn't have time to marvel for long however, since the Hulk had followed Spider's movements and continued to try to smash him. With a series of punches and kicks and stomps that each would have put a wrecking ball to shame he left Spider frantically flipping, diving, leaping and dodging for his life. All while spouting a stream of profanity that would have shocked Tech. Finally managing to flip backwards and break away from the hulk into the woods behind him he landed in the woods and ducked into the concealment of the shadows to catch his breath. Not that he was tired, his endurance could sustain him for far longer than that brief frenzy had lasted but to gather his wits and fight down the panic surging up within him. Before he could however he heard a sound directly behind him and his Spider sense let out a small warning buzz telling him that something was approaching from behind. With the Hulk in front of him, the Wendigo somewhere in the woods to his left, his team in the woods a good ways back awaiting his return and his heart going a mile a minute he didn't turn to look or stop to think at all. As the snapping of twigs got closer and the low guttural voice sounded out behind him, Spider spun, swung his foot around at shin level he swept the legs of his assailant out from under him and brought one fist up into it's head all nearly faster than they eye could trace. Cut off before he could get a word out. Instead he was caught of guard and sent sailing off into the woods with a grunt of pain and a crash of branches breaking and leaves rustling as he hit the ground. Looking back over his shoulder frantically he saw the Hulk still approaching him from the clearing. Thinking to turn his attention back to him he again sensed the man that had approached him. Apparently not deterred by the blow he had received he charged out of the shadows directly towards the near panicking Spider. As the stranger approached a sound cut through the air that, again nearly caused Spider to fill his shorts with fear. He recognized the sound instantly even though he had never heard it before. The terribly distinctive "snikt" of three adamantium claws unsheathing themselves from their hiding place inside the man's hands. As the man charged the six foot long claws he had unsheathed glittered in the fading sunlight. Without saying another word the man dove towards Spider and slashed at him viciously with the claws on one hand. Leaping straight up into the air and catching hold of a branch Spider held himself there several meters above his attackers head. Missing his target with his diving slash the clawed man tucked into a roll and was back on his feet almost instantly. Looking up to where Spider hung he half spoke half growled out a message to him. "I don't know who the hell you are bub, but I know you ain't who you're pretending to be. Now I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt, I was gonna talk to you all peaceful like but you had to go and give me grief about it. Now I'm not so inclined to go easy on you." as he spoke he sniffed the air and glanced over his shoulder tensely. Crouching down slightly he pivoted himself so he faced the clearing that Spider had come from. "Now you get down here and explain yourself or I make you come down and take your medicine. This situation here isn't your business and I wanna know what you're doing sticking your nose in it." as he said it he brought his arms up and clenched his fists tighter. Crouching slightly the man was as menacing looking as anyone Spider had ever seen. Dangling from the tree in stunned silence he finally managed to force out a response. "Wolverine?!?" he said in disbelief just as the Hulk reminded them he was still around. Crashing through the tree branches and various shrubbery that separated them the incredible Hulk leaped at Spider with fists clenched and teeth bared. Reacting on instinct Spider yanked hard on the branch that held him aloft hoping to propel himself up and over the hulk's attack. However the branch couldn't quite take the sudden extreme shift in weight and snapped before he could use it to move himself. Gaining only a foot of height out of the maneuver he was still in the way of the Hulk's way with no time to try to use a web strand to clear himself. Instead he twisted himself in midair from his half turned position holding the branch to face the green attacker's assault head on. At the last split second before impact as he remained suspended in mid air before gravity took hold Spider raised his hands above his head and brought them down hard on the jade giant's back. Using the force of impact to propel him upwards off of the hulk's body he flipped above the monster and out of it's reach as the giant rocketed by. Landing in a crouch he turned to follow the hulk's path with his eyes only to catch site of three foot long knifelike claws whipping towards his head. Throwing himself backwards the claws missed his forehead by no more than a centimeter. Without waiting even a second to see if his first strike had landed, Wolverine followed it up with a second, a third and a fourth. Landing on his back as he threw himself backwards the first time, Spider rolled to the side to avoid being skewered, flipped himself up to his feet, ducked under another swing of his attacker's claws and leapt over the last giving Wolverine a sharp kick in the back of his head as his leap carried him over the mutant's head. Given Wolverine's lack of super strength and invulnerability Spider felt a pang of guilt at having hit him so hard. That guilt however evaporated as Wolverine's unbreakable metal skeleton and unbelievable healing abilities had him up and attacking again. Dodging frantically Spider became a black and silver blur as he moved at full speed leaping and flipping around in the woods. As the panic faded and the adrenaline began to pump through his system he started to regain control of his wits What the bloody freakin' hell am I doing here? I'm fighting the Hulk, Wolverine and the Wendigo in the woods in the middle of nowhere with no clue why, no plan and no teammates anywhere in sight. Where the hell are they? What are they waiting for? How long are they gonna leave me hanging here to fend for myself? As his thoughts touched on the location of his teammates however they just so happened to arrive. Watching out of the corner of his eye he saw Inferno and Psyche step into the clearing obviously braced for battle followed by a very shiny Nariman Deravi. Upon seeing them, while still dodging Wolverine's relentless barrage Spider's mood brightened considerably. Alright! The big guns. He thought. It's on now! Right as the thought presented itself however the Hulk returned in all his rampaging unstoppable glory. Crashing through the trees in his way and leaving only splintered bits of wood in his wake he attacked both Spider and Wolverine with more ferocity than any living being had a right to. Suddenly forced to pay a fair amount of extra attention to keeping himself ahead of the dangers thrown at him, his mood fell down a notch or two. It fell even further when Wendigo came charging back onto the scene doing his Hulk impression. Suddenly taxed to his speeding limit by the assault of three extremely deadly and fairly angry enemies, Spider started feeling his doubts about whether his friends' arrival would make any difference.  
  
If one happened to be walking in the woods nearby (of course nearby is a relative term, you could probably be 20 miles away and get the same effect) at that exact time, there would be some very strong signals that something was wrong. A man by the name of Daniel Beattie just happened to be in the woods nearby and he received just such a signal. The signal came in the form of a 100 foot long oak tree spinning out of the darkness towards him and imbedding itself in the ground just behind him. Daniel Beattie (or just Dan as he preferred to be called) was currently a security guard at a Oil refinery when part of the woods came out to greet him. The fact that the refinery was out in the middle of nowhere and had far more security than one would expect from a simple refinery didn't bother Dan. After all the refinery was owned by the infamous Roxxon Oil company and Dan knew that the multi billion dollar corporation was always involved in shady dealings and that the building he was currently being paid to guard was undoubtedly more than just the Oil Refinery it seemed to be. nonetheless the pay was good and there had never been any trouble with the job so he stayed. He was a low level employee who was never privy to any secret information or asked to do anything illegal and immoral. Even huge criminal organizations had legitimate employees and Dan was prepared to settle for being one of them. When the trees ahead of him splintered with the impact of the flying oak and bits of wood and various other debris shot out at him at mind numbing speed Dan was faced with something he was completely unprepared for. The tree came so fast that he had no time to react. Instead he stood there stunned as it whipped by less than an inch from his head and landed with a crash behind him. Whether it was a bit of shrapnel or simply the wind from the tree whipping by Dan was knocked to the ground and landed heavily on his back, wheezing to catch the breath that had been knocked from him. He lay there for several minutes as the world spun around him. Buzzing sounds filled the air and mixed with the sound of muffled voices and high pitched squeals. The whole world turned to chaos as he finally began to make sense of the words he heard. "BEATTIE WHAT THE HELL'S HAPPENING OVER THERE?" the voice sounded from Dan's hip. "THE WHOLE ALARM GRID JUST LIT UP IN YOUR SECTOR! WHAT'S GOING ON?" it asked. Finally Dan understood. It was his radio. His boss was calling to see what was happening. Sitting up from where he lay (amid a tangle of uprooted bushes and chunks of wood and what Dan could have swore was a muffler) he unhooked his radio from it's place on his hip, flipped it on and spoke into it. "Dan here" he said as he looked around surveying the land around him. It occured to him that he should say more but he couldn't seem to make himself care. Instead he dropped the radio and stood up. Something in the woods had caught his eye. In the whole in the edge of the woods, still in the shadows there was movement. Something big and green was scurrying about just deep enough in the dark for Dan to be unable to make it out. When it came closer Dan's heart stopped. Recognition seized him immediately. It was the Hulk! And Hulk didn't look happy. At first Dan thought the monster was charging him or was simply on some mindless rampage but upon closer inspection it seemed that the monster wasn't alone. Dan watched as the gamma irradiated giant swung his fists with dazzling speed in every direction. And just on step ahead of his fists at all times was a separate blur. Whatever it was moved to fast to be identified as anything but a dark blur but whatever it was it seemed to have the hulk angry with it. Whatever it was, Dan was just happy it wasn't him. As the young security guard watched the monster rampage after the dark blur something strange happened. It seemed that Dan lost all control over himself. Reaching down to his gun holster he removed the hand held plasma blaster that Roxxon oil issues to all of it's security guards raised it, aimed it at the green goliath before him and squeezed off the trigger. Over and over he fired at the monster as he stood up and worked his way out of the tangled debris left by the Oak missile that had narrowly missed him all the while he was inwardly cursing and screaming at himself to stop. Finally past the remains of the tree and on less hazardous ground he fired off a last couple of shots at the monster, turned and ran back towards the relative safety of inside the Roxxon Oil refinery. Discarding the gun as useless while he ran he almost made it. Less than a dozen yards from the large heavy steel security doors that would allow him access, a shadow past over him. Something in his head screamed "LOOK OUT" as his heart skipped several beats and his mind froze. Before he knew what had happened something landed heavily on his back and threw him sprawling to the ground. As his mind slowly began to catch up to the events that were occurring he realized that the voice that warned him to move was not in his head at all. It came from somewhere else. At the same time there was an impact a few feet behind him that was so loud he could feel it rattle his teeth. Rolling over with a wince of pain he turned to see what had happened. Everything was chaos, his mind was freezing up and it seemed that he was looking at the world around him through a heavy fog. Squinting through the imagined fog and forcing back the pain he rewarded himself with a brief instant of clarity. The Hulk was standing over him, having jumped the distance from where he was at the edge of the woods to the pavement he had just crushed in pursuit of the meddlesome insect Dan had been. His giant green feet were imbedded deeply into the pavement and were surrounded by a network of cracks and breaks although it didn't seem to bother the monster any. In fact the hulk didn't even seem to notice. His attention was focused on Dan. Dan watched in horror as the Hulk raised one basketball sized fist above it's head and tensed to strike. Terrified Dan closed his eyes as tightly as he could as if to shut away the world around him and protect himself from the dangers it posed. From inside the shelter of his eyelids Dan heard an earthshaking impact and knew that the hulk had struck. He did not feel the bone-crushing impact he had expected however. Instead he felt something grab him at speed and he felt a rush of movement that almost made Dan want to vomit. He could tell without looking that he was moving at speed, the rush of wind in his ears and the sense of nausea that reminded him of a roller coaster running wildly out of control. His curiosity never once compelled him to open his eyes though. The terror he felt would not allow it and somewhere in his mind he almost believed that it was closing his eyes that was what saved him. And if that was the case he might not ever be willing to open his eyes again. In his stunned state he had one clear thought on the subject. He hoped he would live long enough to get that choice.  
  
Spider hated this. He had let things get way out of control. Dodging the Hulk was well within his ability. Hell even with Wolverine after him at the same time, he was staying well ahead of them while acting on autopilot. He wasn't thinking. Seeing the Hulk, the Wendigo, Wolverine, characters he had spent his life reading about in comic books had done something to him. He had fought aliens, giant robots, high tech mercenaries, soldiers from centuries in the future and characters from television shows and video games. Through all of it he had been able to plan. He was the leader of the Anomalies, he had the power, the experience, the skill to deal with these problems. He knew it and yet he still couldn't make himself do it. He couldn't come up with a plan. Instead he stayed on autopilot while the Hulk thrashed, swung and raged at him with all of his gamma spawned might. Breaking away from the clearing it had began with and the other super beings involved the Hulk had continued after Spider stubbornly, tirelessly, mercilessly. The Hulks, ferocity was unlike anything Spider had ever seen. Though he knew everything there was to know about Bruce Banner through years of reading comics and knew exactly how powerful he was it was mind numbing to actually see it in person. When the Hulk had forced him away from the others and deeper into the woods, it was exactly that numbness of his mind that allowed it to happen. If he had tried he could have moved faster easily. He could have broken far enough away from the monster to circle around it and back towards the others. He could have even lost the Hulk along the way if he tried hard enough. He didn't. Instead he continued dodging on sheer reflex, fast enough to avoid the crushing impacts that the hulks fists promised but slow enough so that he never broke away from the monster enough to catch a break. Spider's endurance was superhuman. So much so that he could continue at this pace for hours if he needed to but the hulk's endurance dwarfed his completely. The Hulk was completely tireless. He could continue at this pace indefinitely. Worse he could go faster than this. His strength increased in response to anger. The madder the hulk got the stronger the hulk got. Spider knew this and knew what it meant. It meant that as Hulk grew more and more frustrated at missing Spider with his attacks he would grow stronger, bigger, faster. The Hulk would keep speeding up as Spider slowly tired and weakened. If he let that happen. The "if" was beginning to seem smaller and smaller though as Spider continued to act on autopilot instead of act. As the monster chased him Spider lost all sense of direction, all sense of where he was. He was lost, deep in the woods with no clue how to get out of there and with an unstoppable gamma irradiated monster after him bent on crushing his innards to jam (or perhaps jelly). Despair started to kick in and it finally slapped some sense into him. With a little extra effort Spider put on a burst of speed. Kicking up off the ground suddenly and grabbing a handful of the hulks hair, Spider yanked hard and flipped over the monster landing silently just behind the Hulk. Acting instantly Spider dove from the ground on which he had landed right through a gap formed between the hulks legs as he turned around. Moving as fast as he could Spider dove through the gap without so much as brushing the monster's legs and landed in a roll that carried him away from the Hulk and into the shelter of the trees beyond. Having performed the whole maneuver silently Spider hoped to lose the Hulk and ducked into the bushes where he remained suddenly still. Watching the green behemoth from his hiding spot in a bush, somewhere in north America, in deep in the middle of the woods on an earth that was definitely not his Spider suppressed the sound of his breathing as best as he could and waited. The Hulk had predictably stopped when he turned around. Having lost sight of the tiny black clad figure he had pursued he stood still for several seconds searching the shadows in rage. The hulk was breathing heavily although the fact was misleading. It was his rage that caused him to breathe heavily not fatigue. It was rage that also caused him to uproot a massive oak tree from it's place several feet to one side and hurl it with a scream of frustration into the shadows of the forest around him. Spider hadn't expected this. While it didn't really surprise him that the hulk was smashing something (for the hulk, smashing is a given) Spider had never really considered the hulk taking out his frustrations on a tree instead of searching for the cause. What did surprise Spider was that the tree Hulk threw was heading right for him. Hulk hadn't seen Spider, he didn't know that Spider hid in that particular bush, Chase's Spider sense told him that much. It also told him that the tree, no matter why it was thrown was an immediate danger to him. Intentionally or not the hulk had performed a move that could have been hazardous to Spider and it took a large burst of speed and an uncanny level of agility to evade it. Fortunately Spider was capable of both. Unfortunately it was impossible for even Spider to dodge both the tree and the attention of the hulk at the same time. The Hulk saw him again. As the tree crashed through the woods narrowly missing Spider it splintered several other trees and sent shrapnel whipping through the woods at incredible speed. Shattered limbs and chunks of dirt and rocks flew everywhere, knocking down trees and shattering other branches and plants. The Oak had left havoc in it's wake. Havoc that caused further problems for Spider. Trees fell all around him. Some he was forced to dodge, others simply limited his ability to dodge due to the fact that he could no longer anchor web lines to them. It was because of this that the Hulk was able to close on the Spider and continue the flurry of punches kicks and attacks that had begun back in the clearing with the Wendigo, Wolverine and the other Anomalies. Forced in close again the Hulk and Spider suddenly broke from the woods into the open. Casting glances around while he dodged Spider saw that they had come across some sort of plant, out in the middle of nowhere. Whatever it was it had high security. The woods ended and turned to a paved area around the facility which was built with high walls spotlights everywhere. Closer to the building itself were chainlink fences with signs warning of high voltage and several security booths in the gates where security guards were stationed. The building looked like some sort of cross between a maximum security prison, a space age power plant and military base of some sort. When Spider caught sight of the Roxxon Oil sign on one wall as big as a billboard he realized that it could very well be all three. His attention was forced away from the sign however when something moved in tangled and shattered remains of the tree that had led them there. As Spider allowed himself to slip back into a pattern of simply dodging the Hulk on reflex alone he watched a lone security guard sit up from where he had lain amid the shattered limbs and splintered trunk of the oak. Amazingly the man seemed unharmed save for the odd scratch on his skin and the way he clutched at his ribs with one arm. The man watched the Hulk silently and in an obvious state of shock. Spider couldn't blame the man. The tree must have surprised the hell out of him Spider thought forgetting for a moment that the Hulk being the source of the tree was likely just as startling and probably a lot more troubling when you thought about it. Numbly the man stared and after a moment he seemed to notice something. Reaching down slowly, awkwardly he lifted the radio he carried to his mouth, said something Spider couldn't hear into it and dropped it on the ground. Then the man reached down, grabbed his gun, aimed it and fired several times at the Hulk. Spider was in shock! Not at the fact that the weapon that the guard fired wasn't a gun but something that shot a visible bolt of red energy, but at the fact that the guard was crazy enough to attack the Hulk with just a simple hand held weapon. After a second the previous fact caught up to him and he went deeper into shock. He was snapped out of it when one of the blasts the guard fired tore through the air directly in Spider's path. Spider sense screaming he twisted in midair and shot one leg out to kick off of one of hulk's massive thighs. Propelling himself upwards and over the blast he shot one strand of webbing into the ground off to his left (technically it might have been his right but he was upside down at the time so it's all relative) and yanked on it hard to clear himself of the Hulk yet again. As it turned out the effort wasn't necessary. The blasts slammed into the Hulk's chest and head and tore his attention away from Spider. They blasts seared the air and burned the hulk. While they did no visible damage to the Hulk the blasts filled the air with the smell of ozone and seared flesh as they splashed off of the Hulk's skin and they seemed to cause him enough pain to get him to notice the guard. The shots were going wide now as they continued. Spider looked and saw that the guard had gotten to his feet and was firing wildly, he was barely even looking. After a second he stopped, dropped the weapon and ran. The Hulk stood motionless as he watched the man run. Then suddenly he tensed his leg muscles and with a sneer he leapt. Realizing immediately what the Hulk was doing he screamed out a warning to the man. "LOOK OUT" he shouted as he moved as fast as he could after the Hulk towards the guard. The Hulk's leap was well aimed and he was hurtling towards the guard like a meteor. His leap upwards was what made the difference. Spider, who was considerably faster bolted as fast as he could in a straight line for the man. With an incredibly fast series of leaps Spider crossed the 50 or so yards that separated him from the running guard and he seemed as though he would still be too slow. He would never be able to pull the man out of the hulk's path in time. Not without killing him. Instead he tried something else. With his last leap in his pursuit of the guard Spider changed direction. Instead of continuing forward he kicked off upward with every ounce of strength he had. Rocketing upward directly into the path of the oncoming Hulk. In the split second before impact Spider twisted his body around completely so he hit feet first. As he kicked upward at the Hulk there was an impact that could be felt in the air and that left everything below Spider's knees painfully numb it did it's job however. The Hulk was stopped in his descent and sent back upward a few precious meters. Spider had done it. While he knew he was far to weak to overpower the Hulk he had stopped him anyway. While the monster was in the air coming down Spider didn't have to contend with his strength. Instead he only had to stop approximately 12 hundred pounds of matter moving at terminal velocity. The impact of his kick had done it and had bought him just enough time to make use of. Twisting back around s he landed (which was fast enough to be painful) Spider landed and leaped again at the guard's back. While he was fast enough to save the man he didn't have time to do it gently and was forced to simply tackle the man to the ground to force him out from under the Hulk's crushing weight. With a twist of his body and a flip that would boggle the mind of any Olympic judge however Spider was able to spare the man from having Spider land on him. Instead he only suffered the impact of hitting the ground. Landing gracefully on his feet a few feet past the man Spider watched the Hulk come down. He landed less than a second after Spider did although the hulk's landing wasn't nearly as graceful (it still might have impressed a panel of judges but on a different level. Spider's flip would have impressed them as an acrobatic feat whereas they would look at the hulk's landing like they would look at really good special effects in an action movie. Cause seriously, who isn't impressed by a few really good special effects?) Still though, it was the hulk, and Spider was impressed he managed to land on his feet at all. When Spider had intercepted the hulk he had caught him off guard and the Hulk had been sent spinning upwards. At the time he had looked out of control but apparently the Hulk had managed to right himself.  
  
The Hulk landed with crunch as his feet imbedded themselves in the unsuspecting pavement ( I say unsuspecting cause it is, don't argue with me, pavement rarely expects anything, less yet a man shaped missile to hit it at near terminal velocity). For a moment everything froze. The Hulk, Spider, the guard, even the air around them seemed to stand still as if it were waiting to see what would happen next. Then the guard turned over with a groan and opened his eyes to look up at the Hulk who was standing over him. The Hulk looked down at him for an instant, then raised one fist into the air and brought it swinging down with more force than any wrecking ball ever wielded. Without a second of hesitation Spider leapt to the man's rescue, scooping the guard up in his arms and leaping away he saw the man clenching his eyes shut as hard as he could. It gave him the appearance of a scared two year old but reminded Spider of someone or something else as well. Though he couldn't place where at the moment (being a little distracted) the guard looked disturbingly familiar to Spider. Landing twenty or so feet away from the Hulk Spider moved to lower the man to the ground again but his Spider sense screamed and he wasn't given a chance. The Hulk's swing had left his arm imbedded in the ground all the way up to his elbow and instead of pulling it straight up and out he ripped it out violently in the direction of Spider and the guard he carried. The action caused hundreds of pounds of small rocks and bits of pavement to whip out at Spider like bullets. They moved to fast for the eye to follow and their weight, and jagged edges promised that they'd be just as deadly as any bullet would ever be. They burst towards him like buckshot and it took every bit of speed and agility Spider possessed to dodge them. Guided by spider sense and motivated by self preservation, Spider somehow managed to not only avoid the scattered projectiles but also to keep the guard from being hit either. Although given how fast and how suddenly he had moved the man around he wouldn't be surprised if the poor guard had passed out. He was dead weight to Spider anyway, and Spider wasn't looking for any help from the guard. The guard's loss of consciousness only meant that it was going to be more complicated to keep the man from turning from dead weight to just dead. (Given the urgency of the situation Spider didn't allow himself to wince at the joke as he otherwise would have, Normally he tried to be clever with both his thoughts and the things he said out loud, the "dead weight to just dead" comment however was possibly the worst of either he had come up with in a long while). With the Rocks gone Spider tried again to put the man down. As he did so the Hulk charged. Aw come on! Spider thought gimme a break! I don't wanna do this all day! he finished as he picked the guard up again and again removed him from the Hulk's murderous path. The constant dodging and running and hiding was starting to wear Spider down though. Not as much physically as mentally. He was fed up with running and hiding. Dodging and jumping through hoops. He knew he wasn't as strong as the Hulk, but Spider had decided that he wasn't going to let that scare him any more. He had fought people more powerful than him before. He was used to fighting those who can dish out a lot more damage than Spider can. He wasn't going to let himself lose by tiring himself out and finally slipping up. If he was going to lose he would go down fighting. Flipping over the Hulk, Spider managed to get clear of the monster for a second and used it to put the guard down and slide him across the pavement where he came to a rest nearly fifty meters away. While it probably wasn't the most comfortable of escapes Spider was confident that the guard would sustain no serious injury from the slide and he would be far safer over there than he would be while carried around in a fight with the Hulk. And that was exactly what this had become. This was a fight.  
  
Over the course of history there have been many "shots heard around the world". When a surprisingly young and relatively charming human being who just so happened to be president of Earth's United States of America was shot by a man with a miraculous aim in a nearby library it was an example of such a shot. This is just one example, there have been many. In a way this is irrelevant to the story of the Anomalies. At this particular point there was no "shot heard round the world". There was nothing even close. There was however, a lot of cursing and a large animal with a nearly mindless bloodlust and razor sharp claws and teeth bursting from the bushes towards an unsuspecting Chris Shirreff... but not in that order. Upon entering the clearing Chris still had no idea what was going on. He wandered in a few minutes after Spider had left and had made no effort to hide his presence nor keep his guard. It didn't seem as though he had put any thought at all into wandering into the clearing, as though his sole purpose for doing so was some sort of inane curiosity. Accompanied by Psyche and Tank who walked on either side of him one could assume he felt safe enough in his human form even when he had no idea at all what waited for him in the clearing. While this was relatively justifiable it was also a mistake. The three Anomalies had detected movement off to one side of the clearing and had identified the signs of combat between their "team leader" Spider and some as yet unknown very large individual. Because of these signs they didn't bother checking for other dangerous individuals in the area. So when the Wendigo burst suddenly from the bushes behind them with a startlingly loud crash and a mind numbing roar all three Anomalies were caught off guard. This fact posed the biggest problem for Chris because as the most vulnerable looking target the beast had charged right at him. Before he could react at all the monster was practically on top of him, backhanding a startled psyche away to one side and swiping at the unignited Inferno with razor sharp claws and deadly intent. As the claws arched towards his abdomen Chris watched in stunned silence not yet realizing what was happening and something yellow and roughly man sized whipped over his shoulder directly at the Wendigo's face. There was the sound of two bodies colliding followed almost instantly by the sickening sound of the tearing of flesh. The beast staggered back and the man sized projectile hit the ground, bounced back and scrambled after it. The sounds of snarling roaring, slashing and fisticuffs filled the air as Chris felt something warm and wet pouring down his legs. Looking downward instinctively Chris was startled to find that he was bleeding profusely. His stomach had been torn open badly by the white furred monster and nobody had even noticed. He pressed his arms to the wound to try to hold in the blood and felt the sickening shift of his innards trying to slip by his arms. He fell to his knees as he the pain caught up with what was happening but he made no sound. As Tank and Psyche charged after the monster and the yellow man who pursued it neither cast a glance back at Chris. They didn't notice he thought. They didn't notice that it got me. It occurred to him that this shouldn't happen. He shouldn't be beaten so easily by some stupid animal. He was... he was something... his thoughts faded as he slowly slipped into shock. Confusion and pain took hold of him and he sank further down to the ground. In seconds everything had gone dark. His last two last coherent thoughts were about how ridiculous golf pants look and then about Sage.  
  
He hadn't thought things out. He hadn't been given time. Instead he simply acted. Not on reflex this time but out of desire. Desire to hurt the monster who pursued him. Up until that point the Hulk couldn't hit Spider. Every time the monster charged Spider was well ahead of him, dodging too fast for the giant to keep up. This time was different. The Hulk charged at him with fists bared and a look of rage that would have your average man soiling himself but clearly expected Spider to dodge as usual. As he charged the behemoth readied himself to change course and strike out at either side. He didn't however put any thought or effort into guarding his face. Before either the Hulk or Spider fully knew what happened Spider had dove head first right at the Hulk's face and had put everything he had into a crushing blow to the green skinned monster's face. The impact was so loud it had Spider's ears ringing. It occurred to Spider that his hand should hurt but it didn't he couldn't feel a thing in his whole arm. As he landed he watched stunned as the Hulk was thrown back by the blow and landed with a crash on his back more than a dozen yards away. As he landed Spider's instincts and desire kicked in again and he went after the Hulk, pressing his attack. Pushing himself as hard and as fast as he could go Spider struck the Hulk from every angle repeatedly. In less than 10 seconds he had hit his gamma irradiated enemy nearly a thousand times and each hit was strong enough to shatter granite. Staggered badly the Hulk flailed his arms wildly trying to stop the little black clad man in his unexpected rampage. Each swing of his tree trunk sized arms only made it worse though as Spider dodged and struck at his suddenly exposed chest, neck, head or back. Anything he could hit he did and everywhere he hit he hit hard. For five long minutes this rampage went on and while five minutes may not seem long to you consider it from the Hulk's point of view. Dozens of unbelievably hard blows every second for five whole minutes. Under the force of this flurry of attacks entire skyscrapers would be leveled in five minutes. Or consider it from Spider's point of view. Imagine pushing yourself as hard as you possibly can. Putting everything you have into one punch, one kick, one leap. Now imagine putting that much effort into dozens of such actions several times a second. Imagine every muscle in your body screaming at you to stop after only a few dozen seconds. Now imagine continuing to push yourself that hard for five excruciatingly long minutes entirely because your enemy was still moving. Regardless of how you look at it the feat was unbelievable and for a while it seemed as though it would continue indefinitely. Then suddenly it stopped. One flailing boulder sized fist finally connected and the sounds of impacts that had long since blended into each other suddenly exploded outwards with bone-jarring new intensity. Caught squarely in the chest by the Hulk's fist Spider was sent flying back away from the Hulk faster than he had ever moved under his own power. Rocketing outward a few feet above the pavement he struck the ground and bounced. Suddenly Spider, for all his agility, strength and speed seemed more like a skipping rock than a super hero. And if skipping rocks was an Olympic event then perhaps you might see a rock bounce of water as many times as Spider bounced off that pavement before he finally came to a stop. Lying there motionless Spider was surprised to even be alive less yet conscious. Everything hurt from his muscles to his costume to his hair. And the world around him was spinning so fast it made even someone with his tendency towards acrobatics want to be sick. He tasted blood in his mouth and his arms and legs hurt so bad he was sure they were broken. Each breath came in a broken ragged gasp that sent stabbing pains throughout his body and all he could think of was how much it hurt. His ears were ringing so loud he didn't even hear the earth shaking footsteps getting gradually louder as they approached. He tried to focus on clearing the blurring from his vision. Tried to make the world stop spinning enough to get his bearings but found he couldn't. His vision was a whirlwind of spots, bright lights and shadows that made him think what it would be like to go see a laser show on Acid. He thought he saw a large green blur pop in and out of his line of sight but he couldn't tell. He couldn't seem to discern colors. Was it possible that he had been hit so hard that he had been rendered color blind? Regardless of whether or not he saw it however the massive form of the Hulk was standing over his motionless body and somehow the monster seemed unharmed. For all his effort Spider had accomplished nothing. Every injury the Hulk had sustained (which were greater in number than any observer would have expected but far fewer than Spider would have hoped) had healed already and he was left without a mark anywhere on his massive emerald body. The Hulk stopped in his approach to peer down at the broken form his enemy had been reduced to. For a moment he seemed to consider what to do next, as if deliberating whether he had done enough to Spider or whether to crush the pest once and for all. In fact that was exactly what the hulk was doing. He was deciding just that thing. Whatever his decision would have been however he never got to make it. Instead he found himself interrupted by a beam of purple incandescent energy as wide as a Volkswagen. The impact made no sound whatsoever and there was no flash of light, nor spray of energy as it splashed off it's target. Instead it simply blasted by silently and swiftly sweeping the Hulk off with it as it struck him. It wasn't until the Hulk and the beam that propelled him collided with the forest hundreds of yards away that any sound was heard. With a deafening crash the mammoth green projectile splintered trees and sent animals scurrying as the beam finally burned itself out and disappeared. Landing with a bounce the Hulk roared once more and leapt back onto the asphalt and sought out his new assailants. Looking about angrilly the monster found himself greeted by an army. Thousands of men had amassed at one end of the Roxxon compound's property and were marching towards the Hulk armed to the teeth and ready to fight. Or at least as ready to fight as one could be when challenged by the Hulk. Each man was armed with a high powered plasma rifle, at least one plasma pistol, a belt of various kinds of grenades ranging from the old fashioned incendiary grenades to ion bombs the technology of which it would take the scientists you know several decades to recreate. With their weaponry and body armor and various other tools of war the three thousand men present there could likely defeat every human army existent in the earth that Chase and the other anomalies were from. Bringing their weapons they prepared to fire again at the intruding gamma monster they faced but he didn't give them the chance. Leaping into the air the incredible green goliath landed in the middle of the approaching army with a roar and began to unleash his incredible furry into anyone in reach.  
  
In a clearing, in the woods, some number of miles from anything of note big things were happening. The two Anomalies Tank and Psyche had subdued the monstrous Wendigo and the yellow clad mutant they immediately identified as Wolverine with little difficulty and were just getting their bearings when the world erupted into a red ball of fire. The telekinetic shield that Psyche had been using to contain the Wendigo was struck by an energy blast that would have destroyed a small city had it been placed right. As it was the shield was broken but the Wendigo was only slightly battered by the blast. Landing heavily on it's back the creature scrambled to it's feet faster than the others who were thrown about by the blast and was still deciding what it intended to do next when it was hit again. This time there was no protection. A beam of red energy a foot thick struck the beast squarely in the chest and exploded sending the Wendigo hurtling backwards and flattening every tree within a hundred yards. Tracing the beam back to it's source one would find Inferno. At full burn, standing at the center of the storm of energy that suddenly struck the clearing. Though his form was skewed by the immeasurable energies swirling around him one could clearly make out that he was wounded. He held one arm out before him, palm turned towards the Wendigo to direct his wrath, the other arm the other arm was clutched tightly to his stomach as if to hold his innards in. Flowing out from his abdomen past the best efforts of his arm a new energy similar in color to his burn but deeper, stronger and seemingly more pure escaped into the air and wandered chaotically all around the clearing. Apparently unaffected by gravity or restricted to a specific course the energy streaked out in seemingly all directions at once disintegrating all it came into contact with. The light and heat of the whole phenomenon cannot be fully described by words. It was a kaleidoscope of reds, blues, golds and greens of a seemingly infinite variety that captured the attention of all who witnessed it. Psyche watched stunned from his place laying on his back in the grass. The streams of red fire scattered everywhere blinding him to the actual danger of the situation. As more and more of inferno's "blood" poured out into the clearing more and more damage was wrought. In seconds it had burned to ash every tree in a hundred yards and had left the grass and bushes of the clearing nothing more than a memory. The clearing was reduced to a burnt wasteland of craters and ash and it was getting worse by the second. When a stream of energy finally flowed towards him Psyche almost forgot to protect himself. Putting up a telekinetic field he shielded himself within it's protective cocoon and braced himself. The beam struck harder than Psyche had expected and he was blinded by the sudden heat and light of the energy that burned all around him. Gritting his teeth he focused on strengthening his cocoon and waited until the stream of blood past. Snapped out of his trance Psyche cast a few panicked glances all around what remained of the clearing. Inferno was out of control. The "blood" was pouring out in all directions completely out of control and he did nothing but stand there with his arm pointed towards the Wendigo with his palm turned out and his fingers splayed out. It appeared as though he would blast the creature again but he never did. The Wendigo was down. Launched hundreds of yards away, the creature lay motionless beyond the reach of the blood that spread out everywhere else. It's once white fur was blackened and smoking and it seemed permanently injured if not dead. Psyche who knew next to nothing of the creature except that it had attacked them and wounded Inferno was hardly concerned with the beasts well-being but still took note of where it was. Wolverine was at that moment only a few meters away from Psyche scrambling all about with unbelievable agility. As the streaks of blood burned outwards and threatened to strike him he dove and rolled and leaped to safety each time only an inch at best from failure. His yellow black and blue costume was blackened in several places from close calls with the streaks of blood and the hair on his arms and legs were badly singed. All in all he looked horrible. One could clearly see that the man had taken far too much punishment to still be standing but despite that he was dodging and scrambling around with more agility than any Olympic level gymnast that Psyche had ever seen. The way he seemed to anticipate every turn and bolt of the blood reminded Psyche of nothing so much as watching his ally Spider in battle. But Wolverine, to his understanding was not blessed by the wondrous spider sense that Spider possessed. Instead he was able to dodge the chaotic red energy by endless hours of training and experience. Turning his attention momentarily away from the supposedly fictional mutant to the rest of the scene Psyche located Tank. Tank it seemed was the only person there who seemed to be in no danger. Whenever a streak of blood passed over his shiny armored body it splashed off or was reflected away without causing any noticeable harm to the Anomaly it struck. Tank simply stood there confused, shielding his eyes from the painfully bright light radiating from Inferno's body and stood there trying to figure out what to do. Suddenly thoughts appeared in Psyche's mind. CAL! What's going on?!? came Chantel's familiar voice in his head. He remembered teaching each member of the Anomalies how to direct their thoughts so he was more likely to pick up on them and the urgency and concern in Sage's telepathic voice was impossible for Psyche's telepathy to ignore. Reminded of the rest of the team he telepathically sent a message to another of the team. "Jason, Chris is out of control. He's hurt bad. I need you to build something to contain his energy and help him. Now." After only a couple of painfully long seconds a response was directed back at him. "Build it with what? I'd need some seriously hardcore resources to make something like that." Instantly Psyche was responding, only remembering at the last instant to restrain how much effort he put into the message. The urgency of the situation made such restraint difficult for him but it was necessary. If he thought too hard at him he might kill his friend Jason. "Chris's life depends on it and I'm betting he's not the only person either. Talk to the Star trek guys, they got lots of gadgets use them, and hurry. I don't know how long Chris is gonna last." with that he turned his attention away from the Anomalies he had left behind in the woods. For now they were safe from Inferno's burn and he had to focus on keeping them that way. Focusing his thoughts he altered the form of the telekinetic cocoon that surrounded him and attempted to close Inferno within it. As he closed the shield around Inferno the undivided force of the burn upon Psyche's shield hit him like a truck. The strain on his mind of holding back so much energy was too much. He wouldnt be able to hold it for long. Man, Jason you better hurry he thought but couldn't divide his attention enough to let anyone else hear it. As the minutes passed by Psyche was sweating buckets. He had so far been able to contain the burn and Inferno's condition hadn't seemed to change any. Wolverine who seemed to have a surprising level of understanding of the situation was crouched down next to Tank. He was clearly resting, waiting for whatever happened next but from his posture you could tell that he was clearly tensed. He would be ready to react the second something happened. He made no effort to start a conversation with either Tank or Psyche and they were both preoccupied by Inferno's condition to speak with him anyway. The few words he did say seemed oddly enough to be directed at Inferno although it was extremely unlikely that the injured Anomaly could have heard them. "Hang on buddy. Hold it in. We're tryin' to help ya" the scrappy Canadian muttered. Whether he realized it or not Inferno was trying his best to do just that. The injury seemed to disrupt his control of his own energies and he couldn't control himself at all. When he realized it he had tried to revert back to human form but found he couldn't even do that. The burn was completely out of control, all he could do was try to keep from releasing the rest of his energies all at once. Lowering his extended arm he sank to his knees and clutched his stomach with both arms. When Tech finally burst onto the scene the tension was so thick it was almost tangible. "Alright I think I got it" Tech said brandishing a device which looked like the love- child of a toaster and a leaf-blower with backpack straps on it. The device had no casing whatsoever and the various components of it looked more complex than any other machine ever built. They probably were. Still though it would have to do. "Will it work?" Psyche asked quickly. The response wasn't completely reassuring. "Well... sort of.. I think. His energies cant really be fully contained but this should keep them out of the way. It will absorb enough of his energy to use as power when it disrupts his burn at the source and sort of cuts it off. Then it'll use the left over to sort of put him in stasis and heal his injuries." he said. "Sounds good to me" came the rough voice of Wolverine behind him. Tech who only noticed the mutant at that exact moment actually prevented himself by being distracted by his presence. "Well it will... but there may be a problem or two..." after a brief second of silence he elaborated. "When it disrupts his energies one of three things will happen. One: it'll cause him to lose all control of all his energy at once, generating a surge that would basically vaporize half this planet, killing him and all of us with him." after another brief pause he went on. "Two: it'll cut his energies off and heal him and all but he may not be able to ever turn the burn back on again. It may take away his powers forever." better than him dying Tank said grimly. "And third?" Psyche asked. "Well the third is we all live happily ever after" he said. "And two out of three ain't bad right?" he added. Immediately Wolverine responded. "No" he said. "You cant take that kind of chance. This kid's life isn't worth sacrificing billions" he said. "no matter what you think." "We have no choice" came Tech's instant response. "If we don't try to help him he'll lose control of his energy anyway." he said. "Alright it'll have to do." Psyche responded. "Activate the device and let it go. I'll float it into him." he said. "No deal, once it's activated any energy it comes into contact with it'll latch onto. And because it's configured to Inferno not to you it'll probably kill you." he said with a sigh. "What do we do then? At this point I cant let down the shield. There's too much energy in there. The explosion would kill us all." immediately Tank spoke up. "Gimme that." he said snatching the device from Tech's hands. Without a word he flipped the one visible switch on the device and began walking toward the brilliant white blaze Inferno had become. Nobody said anything to try to stop him. The only words spoken were by Tech who yelled out that he Inferno would have to put the device on. With a wave over his shoulder to acknowledge that he had heard Tank proceeded towards the burn. When he got within a few feet of the cocoon Psyche yelled out a warning to him. He was going to shift his focus from the shield around Inferno to a larger one that now included Tank within it. As he did so the effects were immediately visible. The white energy that raged within the invisible cocoon exploded outwards and crashed into another one approximately 10 feet out from Inferno's body. The sudden impact and new strain on Psyche's mind caused him to yell out in pain and he fell to the floor sapped of the physical strength to stay standing. Before he hit the ground Wolverine caught him and gently lowered him to the ground with a few words of encouragement. Briefly Tech wondered how long Psyche could hold back the energy within. He didn't know how long the process would take. He hadn't had time to consider it. Theoretically it should be pretty quick to disrupt the burn but how long would it take to absorb enough energy out of the air to make it safe to do so? Could the device even contain that much energy? As these questions plagued him he strained to see what was going on within the shield. Despite his efforts however he could see nothing past the blinding white light of the burn. What he did see however was that the shield was beginning to fail. It was almost visible at the edges and the surface of it was visibly wobbling and surging, like a blanket spread over turbulent waters. Over the next few seconds pencil thin beams of energy escaped the shield altogether and lanced out into the world beyond. Some shooting straight up, others punching holes into the ground so deep one couldn't see the bottom with a telescope. As they grew in number, size and variety some began blasting out past the two Anomalies and the mutant that stood with them. As Tech's concern grew Wolverine's voice suddenly sounded loudly in his ear. "LOOK OUT" he shouted as he shoved Tech out of the way of a beam the width of a refrigerator that ripped through the air where Tech had previously stood. Diving and rolling to his feet Tech had his internal systems brace themselves for massive energy surges and set his cybernetic enhancements to assist his dodging efforts. Instantly the computer took over. Leading him out of the way of several other blasts that would have had him. Glancing over at Wolverine, Tech was surprised to find the mutant carrying Psyche over his shoulder as he did his best to dodge the blasts himself. Psyche himself lay limp in the other's grip and one could only tell from the look of concentration on his face that he was even still alive. His attention was so focused on containing the energy of the burn that he put no thought into protecting himself. Realizing this Tech thought momentarily how bad it would be if Psyche wasn't there. The area was already in chaos. Avoiding all the blasts that escaped from the shield was an extremely difficult feat that was growing steadily more difficult. And then, quite suddenly they stopped. The blinding glare faded, the erratic blasts of energy ceased, the sound of air igniting and energy exploding into trees air and patches of dirt vanished and were replaced by silence. Pausing in wonder Tech surveyed the area. Everything within nearly a mile was ruined. The ground had been reduced to smoking craters. The trees and bushes had been burned away to nothing more than piles of ash scattered about by the wind. Tech and Wolverine stood battered, bruised and burned near the center of the ruined landscape and at it's center was Tank. Nariman stood still surrounded by the smoke and haze that the burn had caused and was only barely visible. He was only visible at all because he was glowing. Glowing quite brightly actually. Despite his invulnerability and the apparent indestructibility of his armored form the seemingly limitless destructive energies all around him had started to get to him. The heat of Inferno's burn was so immense that it was painful even to Tank. Now Tank had a somewhat unique problem. Because of all the heat he had absorbed nothing could touch him without being instantly destroyed. Also he was sinking. The ground beneath his feet was being melted away by the heat of his body and in a liquid form it could not hold up his massive weight. By the time anyone realized what exactly was happening he had sunk up to his waist and was showing no signs of slowing. Inferno who was the original source of the problem was a separate problem. While the maelstrom of burn he had caused was over he was now laying unconscious and unprotected no more than a few meters away from the still sinking Tank. The heat radiating off Tank himself was thankfully (but somewhat inexplicably) low but the ground that he melted with his touch was not. The slowly growing pool of liquid hot magma was already bringing beads of sweat to the surface of Inferno's skin and judging by the rate of it's growth would soon be close enough to burn Chris alive. Recognizing the problem Tech was somewhat perplexed. Normally something like this would be almost insignificant as a problem for the Anomalies but this was somewhat far from normal. Neither Tech himself nor Wolverine could withstand the heat of the lava so neither of them could save Chris. Spider was missing, Psyche was unconscious, Tank was ... preoccupied and the others were nowhere to be seen. Presumably when the blasts started Creature, Wraith and Sage had moved the Starfleet personnel to a safer distance and done what they could to keep them safe. Now however they were needed and nowhere to be found. "Goddamnit!" Tech said aloud. "If it's not one thing..." he began when an idea struck him (not literally of course. Idea's very rarely strike people literally) he could call for help quite easily. Accessing his internal computer he activated his personal communication system. (Originally it had been intended as an internal cell phone, radio, pager, video camera, mp3 player and witty companion all in one but he couldn't get it to deliver jokes with any kind of decent timing so he killed it's personality and just used it as an accessory from then on) after a few nearly instantaneous adjustments he identified the Starfleet communications signal and sent a message to the nearest officer. "Tech to anyone who can hear me" he said and waited impatiently for an answer. "Ensign Tam here" came the response. "Hey Tam, is Sage there by any chance?" "Uh yeah hold on." after a few seconds of confused rustling and some whispered instructions on how to use the com device Sage's voice sounded on the other end of the line. "Jason?" she asked. "Hey Sage. You mind hurrying the hell over here. Chris needs your help... what were you doing anyway? We're here saving the world all by ourselves and you guys are hiding away in the woods... where's Creature and Wraith?" he asked hurriedly. "Umm I don't know... we kinda got separated. See these blasts started ripping everything up and we had to just grab a bunch of these Star Trek guys and run for cover." "So you were what? Cowering in a cave with wham bam tam having some sinful fun while we did all the work?" "NO!" "Alright whatever, just get over here quick. I think Inferno may be about to die... hello?... HELLO?" to this there was no response however as Chantal was too busy hurrying up to respond. In seconds she arrived and it took only seconds more for her to solve the problems plaguing her teammates. By moving the ground itself she rescued Chris from the heat, then by applying large quantities of cold water and wind (which she made all by her self... and we're all so proud) she cooled both Tank and the molten ground around him then raised him to the surface on a pillar of granite. They were both safe and healthy but neither was very clean. One might have suggested that Sage should help clean them off but past experience (or borrowed experience) told them it was not a good idea to ask things like that of Telli. More than likely it would result in a large amount uncomfortably cold water blasting you at high pressure. Besides she was too busy cleaning up the area around them to clean them off. Restoring the health to the soil and growing plants back from piles of ash was hard work. Especially when one is trying to do it in minutes. Either way though things had gone well. The day had been saved. The bad guys had been stopped (the Wendigo had either gone missing during the storm of inferno's burn or had been vaporized nobody knew and none particularly cared either) the damage had been repaired and as Creature and Wraith wandered into the clearing they were in all the stragglers had seemed to be found. Everyone seemed completely satisfied and content to relax for a while when Wolverine pointed out the painfully obvious detail that everyone else was apparently missing. "Hey where'd jade jaws and that Spider-man wannabe wander off to?" he asked to the shock of the other anomalies. "Oh crap, Chase!" Tech exclaimed. "Creature Psyche's still out can you track him?" he asked quickly Creature was about to respond when Wolverine cut in again. "I'm guessin' no since I cant. Everythin was blown to bits, burned up and then shifted around in the tussle earlier. There's nothin left in the area for a scent to stick to. But if my sense o' direction is right then last I saw him and the big bad Hulk went that way. If we head off down there maybe I can pick up his trail as we go and figure out what happened to him."  
  
Without any complaints they did just that. Leaving Wraith behind to guard the still unconscious bodies of Psyche and Inferno as well as the Star fleet officers that still accompanied the others took off at a good run in the direction Wolverine had indicated. It took only a few minutes to reach the edge of what had previously been destroyed by Inferno's loss of control and once they did it took only a few minutes more to find the trail that Spider and the Hulk had left. After that Wolverine took point. Normally Creature would be outraged by having someone else be in charge of tracking but this time he was too busy being in awe of actually meeting Wolverine. With wolverine in the lead it left the others to their conversations anyway.  
  
"How the hell far did Chase go anyway?" Tech asked. "We've walked like miles." "Yeah well I'm sure he only went as far as he had to... I mean come on! He had the hulk chasing him" Creature pointed out. "You don't think he's in trouble do you?" Chantal asked. "Nah this is Spider we're talking about. He's probably got everything well under control." came Tank's response. At this it seemed as though the powers that be decided to point out audibly how wrong it was to make such assumptions as the sounds of explosions, high impacts and weapons-fire became suddenly and deafeningly apparent. Reacting instantly the Anomalies charged forward and found Wolverine doing the same. A few hundred feet ahead of them they broke out of the woods and into a war zone. In the overly large paved area surrounding some sort of power plant an army of soldiers armed to the teeth with highly advanced weaponry had apparently attacked the Hulk who was steadily making more and more of them pay for it. Bodies, blasters and bullets were flying through the air in all directions and the stray fire and explosions that scattered all around the area had created a situation almost as chaotic as the one they had recently left. As the anomalies took in the scene before them they stopped and watched in shock. (Up until this point none of the anomalies had really ever been in shock of anything before. Since their encounter with giant robots a few days ago however it seemed like their new favorite hobby) again it took the words of the scrappy Canadian mutant known as Wolverine to snap them out of their trance. "Where there's my big green dancin' partner doin his thing. At a Roxxon oil facility no less. I wonder what we've stumbled across this time? Ah well we'll see. Where's your buddy in the dark pajamas?" he asked "there!" Creature said suddenly. Having shifted his eyes to those of a bird of some sort he was able to locate the still form of Spider near the edge of the group of soldiers that had amassed. Almost immediately after pointing him out he shifted to some form of wolf/cheetah/gorilla/man and ran/galloped/charged to where he had seen it to bring his friend back to safety. Aside from a few odd shots from some surprised soldiers who spotted him Creature was able to reach Spider and bring him back to his friends without any trouble.  
  
"Okay one problem down. Now what do we do about the war?" He asked. Shortly Wolverine answered. "There isn't really anything we can do. As long as those idiots keep harassing him the Hulk'll keep rampaging around forever. And since these are Roxxon goons and this is Roxxon property I doubt they'll stop any time soon." he said. "Unless we make them stop" Sage responded. "Tech how bad is Chase hurt?" "Umm just a sec" Tech answered as he walked over to where Spider's unconscious body lay and nudged him with one boot. Immediately Spider grunted in pain. "Pretty bad I'd say." came Tech's official response. "Can you help him?" Sage asked. "Umm yeah gimme a couple of minutes" he said as he removed one highly advanced rifle he carried slung over his shoulder and began dismantling it. "I should be able to whip up a healing device of some sort with this." he said. "Well you're a regular Reed Richards aint ya kid?" Wolverine said jokingly. "Better" came Jason's only response. "Wolverine you seem to know something about these soldiers. How good is their weather gear?" Sage asked suddenly. "Not bad. Top o' the line I'd imagine" came wolverine's response after thinking it over for a second. "Why? What'cha got in mind?" To this Chantal's response was to sit down silently and begin to concentrate. Immediately dark, heavy storm clouds appeared covering the whole battlefield in shadow. Winds kicked up to near hurricane levels and it began to pour rain. In seconds the rain turned to sleet and hail and the winds kicked up even further. After no more than a minute the warm spring air had been reduced to some of the worst storm conditions any of them had seen and the temperature had lowered to nearly 30 below. All with the exception of one small little pocket at the edge of the woods to one side. There the weather was perfect. Not a drop of rain and nice and warm. Looking up from where she sat Sage spoke "if that doesn't make them stop then they're just too stupid to not get pneumonia and a severe beating. She said with a smile. At this Wolverine laughed. "Well that's quite the trick girlie. You take lessons from storm or something?" he asked. "Nope. Wrote the book myself"she grinned. The moment of satisfaction ended abruptly however as a fairly fancy looking hand grenade landed in the center of the Anomalies little gathering. Creature and Tech responded immediately diving for cover and Tank just didn't care. Sage however didn't have time to dodge from her sitting position. Wolverine who saw this was the only person close enough to help her. Grabbing her roughly by one arm he yanked her to her feet and shoved her to safety just as the grenade went off. It wasn't an average hand grenade as one might have guessed due to it's fanciness. Instead it was a high tech concussion/neural stun grenade. Designed specifically to deal with heavily armored or super powered individuals designed by Stark enterprises. And while the Anomalies were clear of the blast unfortunately Wolverine was not. Caught squarely in the back he was thrown into the midst of the storm and lost from sight. Shaken and bruised by the sudden attack the other Anomalies were caught in a state of panic. No longer focusing on the storm it raged on and the pocket of good weather that the anomalies had taken shelter in disappeared. Now surrounded by chaotic weather and the remaining conflict between Roxxon oil soldiers and the Hulk the Anomalies never even noticed the arrival of a third party. Arriving in half a dozen armored aircraft the agents of SHIELD. began pouring onto the scene. The only thing they did notice was that for some reason the focus of the soldiers present stopped being the Hulk and started to be them.  
  
"At some point over the last month or so something terrible happened" Tech muttered to himself. "At some point things got too easy. They even made sense. Apparently somebody noticed cause look where we are now." he finished although it's unlikely that anyone heard him. Scrambling about in a storm of bullets and energy blasts which was in turn in a storm of hurricane force winds and golf ball sized hailstones Tech was a little out of his element.  
  
Given the fact that, while he had possessed super-human abilities for a few years now and had a fairly good grasp on how they could be used and how effectively. And given the fact that he had more experience dealing with dangerous situations than any normal human being already he had still nowhere near the experience necessary to be ready for a situation like this. Here he was fighting alongside a handful of his oldest friends against two armies and a monstrously powerful individual either of which could easily kill him given the chance and all of which were as far as he was concerned fictional.  
  
Here he was in a storm the likes of which just doesn't happen on earth outside of some seriously bad nightmares.  
  
Here he was on an earth that he wasn't born on in an alternate universe from his own  
  
Here he was willing to accept all these aspects of his situation.  
  
What he wasn't prepared to accept was the fact that he was handling himself so damn well and nobody he knew was around to see it. Everyone in the area was either a relatively fictional individual, unconscious or too far away and too distracted to see him. It was really just a small complaint and he logged it away in the back of his mind as he focused on the unbelievable situation at hand.  
  
Even with his technologically enhanced speed and reflexes he couldn't hope to dodge everything that was hitting him so instead he prioritized. Dodging the energy blasts, missiles and bigger bullets and just bracing himself for everything else he was actually doing pretty well. His hastily built armor and portable force field generator were able to handle the small weapons fire and weather conditions and as he harvested fallen weapons and gadgets he used their parts to improve things for himself continually.  
  
He didn't however improve things enough.  
  
Sidestepping an airborne body (possibly male, probably scared) and firing off a series of rapid blasts into a cluster of soldiers that looked to be preparing to charge him he suddenly the world falling out from under him. Amidst the screaming winds, the deafening sounds of weapons-fire and the teeth rattling thunder one wouldn't be able to hear at all what he exclaimed as he realized what was happening but if one could read lips and happened to be paying attention to young Jason Hedge that one would either be quit offended or quite amused. Either way however cursing didn't help him any. Caught around the waist by one mammoth green hand he was lifted from his feet and promptly launched roughly westward at speeds that could most accurately be described as meteoric. There were no words spoken (at least none that were audible or appropriate enough to be written down) and no chance given to either Jason or the two or three dozen people he collided with on his way to the ground. Jason lived, the random nameless soldiers he collided with likely didn't but we wont say for certain because a) they're not really important and b)nobody really bothered to check. Not even Jason however was happy about it. His armor was trashed. His weapons and gadgets were lost somewhere on the battlefield and for some reason his legs weren't working. It didn't even occur to him that he was injured until the HUD screen built into the lense of his right eye told him so. At that point he blacked out.  
  
When Sage realized what was happening it was already too late. The storm she had built had grown beyond her control and her teammates were scattered, injured, and under attack. Since Shield arrived everything had gone to hell. Although to be fair things weren't exactly peachy before their arrival. With Spider, Inferno and Psyche all incapacitated the Anomalies were stripped of both leadership and two of their most powerful members.  
  
Although Sage was more than capable of protecting herself in a war-zone such as this to do so she would have to abandon the other Anomalies. Sage refused to do that. The Anomalies were her friends. She was lost in some sort of inter-dimensional adventure and they were the only thing she had. She would not leave them even if it meant getting injured herself. She wouldn't and she knew that if their roles were reversed they wouldn't leave her either (well to be honest she wasn't entirely sure about Jason).  
  
And so, instead of flying away as fast and far as she could Sage commanded the winds that held her aloft to drop her into a dive. Spiraling downward towards the chaos she held out her hands and began making the soldiers below "feel her wrath". With little more than a thought, lightning split the sky and struck the soldiers below over and over. Fireballs shot forth from her fingertips and exploded among her enemies. The wind and rain grew in intensity ripping people from their feet and tossing them about like leaves in a salad being prepared by a madman. All in all Sage was venting her frustrations in a very outward way and the soldiers below, whether from Roxxon or Shield were extremely sorry for it.  
  
Given a few more minutes Sage would have likely either killed or knocked out nearly everyone present effectively winning this chaotic little war however, those few more moments never came. Instead came something very large, very green and very angry. Pulling up from her dive she saw it coming out of the corner of her eye and immediately turned to avoid it. Sailing up into the air the monstrous living projectile would have passed by quite harmlessly as she dodged had he not been so intent on harming her. Reacting faster than most would have thought possible of him the Hulk turned himself upwards towards sage and slammed his palms together with all of his considerable might. The result was quite terrible. The shockwave from the incredible impact of his hands was devastating. It struck the unsuspecting sage in mid flight and sent her tumbling to the ground quite out of control. Immediately the rain of lightning ceased and the storm diminished considerably. The sky seemed to brighten as Sage fell to the earth unconscious. From her height of several hundred feet to the now jagged and broken pavement below the fall would have undoubtedly been quite deadly for her. Luckily a flying ape of some sort caught her before she hit the ground and carried her in a relatively gentle manner to just beyond the edge of the battlefield. As luck would have it, they were not pursued.  
  
Setting down the unconscious form of Sage, Creature shifted back to his human form and turned to watch what he thought was the end of the battle. While no injuries were visible on the body of Andrew Cambell he was breathing heavily and winced in pain each time he made a quick movement. Obviously the battle had given him some injuries. Looking out over the pavement he watched as the soldiers shrunk back to within the Roxxon building or into their armored vehicles. He began to relax as the last of his enemies seemed to have forgotten about the Anomalies and were only intent on leaving. Even the Hulk seemed to have calmed down a great deal and was slowly wandering off. He was almost at the far edge of the paved clearing when there was a sudden explosion casting the monster backwards. As the behemoth landed heavily on his back on the shattered pavement Creature looked skywards to see where the blast had come from. What he saw made him forget all about relaxing. "Is that what I think it is?" Came a deep voice from his left. Startled Creature turned to see Tank standing less than a dozen meters away from him. At his feet were the bodies of Spider and Tech. Apparently the armored anomaly had gathered up their unconscious bodies and carried them to safety just as Creature had with Sage. Before this could sink in on Creature another strange voice answered from above. "Provided your thought was that The Avengers have arrived to thwart you, then I'd say yes. It is what you think." the voice said. Looking up Creature gasped at the floating green and yellow form above him.  
  
It was human. Or at least it looked human at first, but the artificial tone of it's voice and the strange red skin visible on it's face told Creature otherwise. As recognition took hold of him Tank spoke. "The Vision" he muttered.  
  
"Look buddy" Creature said. "I don't know exactly what's happening here but we don't want to hurt anybody alright?"  
  
"Don't worry. You won't" came another new voice. This one sounded slightly less artificial, but only slightly and it was accompanied by the sound of jets burning. Turning towards the sound Creature only saw a red and gold blur before the newcomer collided with him. Propelled by boot-jets the Avenger Iron-Man slammed into creature and sent him sprawling to the ground. The impact looked severe but just as Iron-Man pulled upwards Creature sprung back to his feet and morphed to a vicious looking animal. Whatever the beast was noone but Creature could say. It looked however to be a cross between a gorilla, a kangaroo, a hyena and a Rhinoceros... only meaner and before he was even fully morphed to it Creature leapt up into the air in pursuit of Iron-Man. Landing on the armored avenger's back as he pulled upwards Creature grabbed on as tightly as he could and bit down onto his enemy's shoulder. With all the augmented jaw pressure that his shape- shifting ability awarded him he was able to pierce the tempered metal of Iron-Man's armor and into the circuitry below. The audible, stunned grunt that Iron Man let out as a result warmed Creature's heart as he bore back and slammed both feet into Iron Man's back and let go of him with both his hands and his teeth. Flipping up into the air Creature watched with satisfaction as Iron man spun into a tree and collided heavily. The victory was short lived however as he was suddenly struck in the face with a spinning red metal disc. Knocked over backwards he continued his descent to the ground head first and disoriented. Before he hit however he managed to turn into a Bobcat-Anteater cross (a Bob-Eater?) And twisted around to land on his feet and scurry out of the way of an oncoming arrow. Diving for cover he used elongated fingers and claws to tunnel down into the earth at the base of a great oak tree and escape from view. Even underground however he got no rest and was startled by the dirt and wood around him being blown to bits by a blast of yellow energy. Leaping up in the air among the bits of shattered wood and airborne chunks of dirt and rock he grew wings and claws and tore off in the direction the arrow had come from. Flying as fast as his griffon-like form could carry him he nearly collided with the Avenger Hawkeye before he even saw him. The gaudy purple costume the archer wore stood out in the woods so damn much Creature's mind almost dismissed it entirely as he flew towards it. Startled he turned away from the archer instinctively before he realized his reason for charging at him in the first place. Shifting in mid air as he passed Hawkeye by he struck out with the tail of a 20 foot long Crocodile catching the Avenger in his mid- section and knocking him to the ground. Before he could land and move on to the next target a pair of huge hands grabbed him around his neck and stopped him in his tracks. Looking up at his assailant Creature was greeted by the sight of a seven foot tall, muscular beyond belief, blonde-haired thunder god. "Aw crap" Andrew thought as one hand released him, bore back and struck him directly in his reptilian face. Suffice it to say the punch took the fight out of him.  
  
Before the fight even began Tank didn't like it. Bringing his shoulder cannons humming to life he saw Creature leap up at Iron-Man's back and moved to aid his teammate. Before he could however he was struck by a blast of condensed solar energy. Turning towards the source he found The Vision flying towards him with both fists bared. Immediately Tank braced himself for an impact that never came. Instead the Vision flew directly into Tank's body and passed through it like a ghost. Partway through however he stopped and did something quite strange. Tank wasn't sure quite what it was that the android was doing inside his body but it was the single strangest sensation he had ever experienced. Almost as soon as it had started however he heard an unbearable scream of pain from within himself and watched in awe as the green and yellow clad android fell out of him and landed silent and unmoving upon the ground. Awestruck Tank only stared at it as he was assaulted anew by two new strangers. These ones seemed younger than the others. One clad in blue and white from head to toe, with only his brown hair and the skin on his face visible flew towards him in a cloud of purple (apparently telekinetic) energy with his blue cape billowing out behind him. The other one was a woman of what looked to be the same age (early 20's Tank guessed) with shoulder length read hair and a red and yellow costume with a stylized fire pattern on it. She also flew towards him but her abilities seemed to be fire based rather than telekinetic. Either way Tank wasn't too concerned.  
  
In his armored form Tank was practically invincible. In all the time he had possessed his extraordinary powers next to nothing had actually hurt him in his armored form and he was inclined to believe that nothing ever would. When he was struck from behind by a glowing purple individual with a large W emblazoned upon his chest he surprised to find that it knocked him from his feet. The impact's effectiveness was mostly a result of surprise and despite the force of it, Tank still barely noticed the impact of it. When both the telekinetic and the fire-woman blasted him in the face with what looked to be everything they had he still remained unhurt but found himself inconvenienced by temporary blindness. As spots and shadows danced before his eyes he rose to his feet and waited. As he waited he heard voices coming from his left. "Justice, Fire-star keep it up, keep him blinded and disoriented. Wonder-Man, keep hitting him till he gets the message, the rest of us will be with you in a minute. And keep in mind, if he brought down Vision that easily he's obviously dangerous." the voice sounded. "Aye- aye Captain" Came the response behind him punctuated by another heavy impact to his back. Aggravated Tank spun around and swung one arm about in a backhanded punch towards where he thought Wonder-Man might be. As expected though he hit nothing and was struck again and again by the three Avengers he fought. The longer it went on the more tempted he became to lash out further with a widespread attack like clapping his hands or stomping his feet. He didn't however because as far as he knew Wonder Man was the only one of his assailants who was invulnerable and to use such an attack he would risk severely injuring one of the others. Or even one of his own fallen teammates who lay unconscious and defenseless nearby. Instead he simply stood there and took their attacks as he waited to get his sight back or for the next development in the debacle this fight had become.  
  
The change that came was a completely unexpected one. Suddenly the assault let up and Tank found him self surrounded by a strange warm red energy. As his sight returned he traced the energy to it's source where he found a woman clad in red gypsy clothes making strange hand gestures. To his great surprise Tank found that the energy was affecting him somehow. The spell had triggered his own transformation and taken away his armor, his shoulder cannons and most of his strength. "What the?" Tank exclaimed as his armored form disappeared leaving behind nothing but flesh and bone (well flesh, bone and pants. He was still wearing pants.) "There we go" came the now familiar voice of Wonder-Man "way to go Wanda" he said as Tank turned towards him. As he turned he saw Wonder-Man bare back and strike out at him with what looked to be considerable force. Reacting immediately Tank's own hand shot out and intercepted. Catching Wonder-Man's fist in his hand Tank struck out with a punch of his own. Despite the fact that Nariman had lost most of his strength with his armored form he still had a great deal of super human strength in him and the impact was still an earthshaking one. Startled Wonder Man was struck squarely in the face and sent flying into the woods behind him. Grinning with satisfaction Nariman turned around to determine where the next assault would come from.  
  
As he turned he found the Avengers in their entirety (minus the Vision and at the moment Wonder-Man) surrounding him. At this point he recognized all of them. Captain America, the Scarlet Witch, Thor, Iron-Man, Justice, Fire- Star and Hawkeye (clutching his ribs and wincing). They stood in a circle around him as if trying to decide what to do next. "Okay people so even without the metal he's a powerhouse... in that case there's no reason to hold back." Captain America said. "Hit him."  
  
As soon as the words were spoken Tank was struck from all sides. Microwave bursts from Fire-Star, telekinetic blasts from justice, Captain America's shield, Iron Man's repulsor rays, Hawkeye's arrows, Thor's hammer and even Wonder Man's fists as he came flying back onto the scene all struck him at once. In seconds it was over and the whole thing was almost painless. The assault was so devastating and so sudden that Tank was rendered unconscious almost before he knew what was happening.  
  
And for Tank, just like for the other Anomalies, everything went black 


	2. Chapter Two

Of all the Anomalies that were knocked unconscious in what they would later refer to as "the battle of the Roxxon parking lot" Spider woke up first.  
  
As he awoke, he found to his pleasant surprise that most of his injuries were gone. The only evidence left that his body had been broken was a number of minor aches and pains running through his body.  
  
As he awoke he found to his somewhat unpleasant surprise that he was strapped down to a metal slab in what looked to be a military infirmary.  
  
Looking around the room hurriedly Spider attempted to get his bearings. The room was nearly bare. The walls, ceiling and floor were all made of what looked to be reinforced steel and the only objects that Spider could see in the room were complicated looking mechanical devices. As the haze of having just awakened receded Spider's thoughts grew clearer and he guessed that the devices were for medical purposes. He also realized quite suddenly that he wasn't alone in the room. Someone was standing directly behind him. Or perhaps directly above him would be a more appropriate statement since Spider was laying flat on his back on a slab. The man was dressed in a typical white lab-coat and was quite typically holding a clipboard and adjusting a typically thick pair of glasses.  
  
As the realization struck him Spider could only manage to say one thing. "Aw crap." he said which brought a slight chuckle from Mr typical. "I never thought this captured by an evil scientist thing actually happened." Spider muttered to himself. "Oh I assure you I'm neither mad nor evil." the man said. "My name is Dr Daniel Beattie" he said. "I've been helping you and your friends recover so you can be questioned.". Okay it's official Spider thought. Definitely don't want that to happen... ... wait a minute why is this guy so familiar? He wondered. Regardless of his questions however Spider was then committed to his chosen course of actions. With a heave of his arms he snapped the heavy leather straps that held him down, sat up quickly ripped the straps off of his ankles and back-flipped up over Dr Beattie's head. Landing gracefully directly behind the startled doctor Spider shot out his hands and attempted to cocoon the doctor in webbing. The attempt failed however as Spider seemed to have been stripped of his web-shooters altogether. It was at this point that he realized he was entirely without his costume.  
  
"Ah I see..." the doctor began. "So the costume ISN'T the source of your abilities." he finished. "Yeah sorry Doc." Spider responded. "But I'm afraid that means I'm gonna have to hit you.".  
  
To this the doctor seemed quite understanding. "Oh yes well that's understandable I suppose. You can't have me telling people which way you went and all." He said. "But wouldn't it be wise to ask me which way it would be best to go first?" the doctor asked. "Ummm" was Spider's only response as he scanned the room and all it's exit's quickly. "Yeah that might be helpful." he finally conceded. "Right. Well your belongings and teammates are kept in holding cells down that way" the doctor said as he pointed through one doorway "But the only way out of this facility leads you back through this room and up that way." he said pointing to a door in the opposite direction. "Okay, got it. Thanks" "Any time" "umm okay... You know I'm still gonna have to hit you right?" "Yes of course, I had assumed as much." "And you're not gonna try to fight back or run or anything?" "Of course not. I have no weapons nor superhuman abilities to match yours. Resistance would only get me injured worse than I otherwise would." the doctor responded calmly. "Well... yeah... but why were you so helpful?" "I was only being polite" the doctor answered. "Whatever man" Spider responded. "Again sorry" he said as he quickly struck the man at the base of his skull just hard enough to knock him unconscious. As the man fell limply to the floor Spider thought to himself that this adventure was getting weirder and weirder every day and leapt for the door that would lead to his friends.  
  
Just as the overly friendly Dr Beattie had indicated the hallway behind the door lead directly to the holding cells where his friends were kept. Passing through a doorway at the end of the hall he came into a room with prison cells along each side. The cells weren't the traditional type. They looked more like the holding cells on the USS AVENGER than they did those of a traditional prison. In each there were three walls and a bed and a red line circling the open doorway. A slight warning buzz in Spider's head confirmed to him that the red lines indicated a force field of some sort. Obviously one that would be unpleasant to touch. In each of the cells was an Anomaly. Behind the force fields. Strapped down and collared by what Spider could only assume was a device to inhibit their powers. Tank and Psyche however were wearing more than just collars. Psyche had a helmet strapped to his skull with no eye-holes and a number of wires and tubes sticking out of it and Tank was tied down with more chains and metal cords than Spider could count. He was also unarmored and had a number of tubes protruding from his flesh which were pumping drugs into him at a rate that would kill a herd of elephants. The drugs were obviously to keep Tank sedated and Spider immediately started planning how to remove them. His plans were interrupted however when his Spider sense started to buzz louder than before and he noticed a new red line cutting him off from the way that he had come. "Crap" he muttered and promptly slammed himself into the invisible wall that had appeared behind him. Hitting it as hard as he could pain flared through his body as the energy of the force field burned through him and repelled his attack. Bouncing harmlessly off the wall (well harmless to the wall at least. Spider was likely a little harmed) Spider fell to the floor, rolled and was back on his feet before he could blink. To his left the groggy voice of Creature sounded out. "No luck eh Chase? Too bad." Creature said. "Cause if you can't get through that wall then the gas I smell is gonna be affecting you pretty soon.". As soon as he said it Spider realized what had been triggering his spider sense. The room was being gassed. Already shadows were beginning to dance at the corners of his eyes and his arms and legs were starting to feel heavier. In just over a minute Spider had again lost consciousness.  
  
Just over an hour later Spider awoke again to the sound of someone calling his name.  
  
"Spider." the voice called out. "Spider wake up. I need to ask you a few questions." it said. As Chase listened he tried to identify the voice before he opened his eyes. It was the voice of a stranger. A man, middle aged at a guess and more than slightly self confident. The man's voice was filled with authority and patience and eventually Spider was forced to open his eyes in response to the man's requests. "Ah you're awake. Good" the man said. As Spider looked the man over his mind was racing. Okay Chase this one's easy. You're in the Marvel universe, you're locked up in a highly advanced holding cell and you're confronted by a completely bald guy in a fancy suit and a floating yellow wheelchair. He though. "Xavier?" Spider asked with relative confidence. To his surprise it turned out he was wrong. "Xavier? Goodness no. I'm hardly a mutant outlaw. My name is Lex Luthor and I'm here to help you." the man said.  
  
Spider's only response was to stare at him in awe. Blinking rapidly Spider sat up and stared more directly. Lex... Luthor? No that's not right. That's not right at all. He thought but decided it'd be best if he kept his thoughts to himself. "What do you want?" Spider asked. "Simple" came Luthor's response. "I want to bring peace and order to this world." "Which means I want to help you and your friends leave it." he said.  
  
Despite his confusion and despite the warm tone in Lex Luthor's voice Spider immediately noticed the threat implied in his statement.  
  
"Now. You are apparently the leader of your quaint little team so I'll ask you and only you." Luthor said. "What will it take to get you people off of my planet?"  
  
"Your planet?!?" Creature exclaimed from the cell across from Spider's "If this is YOUR planet then how come we were fighting the Avengers rather than the Justice League?" Creature asked. "Where's your old pal Superman baldy?" As soon as it was said Spider mentally cursed himself for lending Creature some of his old comics. Here Spider was trying to learn what he could without giving away anything about himself when Andrew comes charging in and gives it all away all at once. "Dammit Andrew" Spider muttered as Lex Luthor turned surprised towards Creature's cell. "What did you just say?" Luthor asked. "You're Lex Luthor. You're not from here and we all know that. You're an evil manipulative man and whatever it is you want here in this world we're gonna stop you" Creature said. "Hmm I see..." Luthor began. "Well if you all know so much about me then you must know how foolish it is to try and stop me." he said. "Since coming three years ago I have gained more and more influence every day. At this point the president of the United States is less influential than I, all because of the technology I bring. Upon arriving here I have purchased mining rights, programming designs, weaponry. By bringing materials and technology from this world to my own I have increased my wealth a very great deal and I am on the brink of ruling both this world and my own." as he spoke he turned back to Spider. "Now here you people are. Complete strangers. Errors in my great plan. And you tell me you're going to stop me? Stop me how? From your captive position all you can do is beg for your lives and pray that I am feeling generous. Threatening me thus is hardly wise. Now let's try again... Who are you people, where are you from and how do I send you back there?" this time the patience in his voice was gone. Replaced by anger and hatred. Spider was struck speechless. Lex Luthor has found a way to cross over to Marvel at will and is using that ability to gain wealth and power enough to take over both worlds? Man this'd make for one interesting comic. He thought. Instead of answering Luthor's questions he decided to ask a few of his own. "Where are we?" Spider asked. With as much authority and confidence in his voice as he could muster. "Avenger's mansion. One of the many sub-levels. The Avengers you see are often working alongside the government here and the government here is now under my thumb. Now answer MY questions. Who? Where? How?" Luthor practically shouted. "If I tell you how to get to our world you'll just follow us and try to take it over too." Spider responded calmly. "You'll learn nothing from us." Spider said.  
  
This response didn't seem to surprise Luthor at all. "Ah. I see you're somewhat smarter than I had originally thought. Too bad. I still can't have you running amok here so you have a choice. You can leave here with my help and go back home or you can die here in the very near future." Luthor said. "What will it be?". Spider's response was spoken as calmly as could be. "I already told you our answer baldy." he said. "You'll learn nothing from us.". At this Luthor merely laughed. "I doubt that. You see I recognize you people for what you are. I've seen countless of you super-hero types before and I know how your minds work. So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to ask you again. Each time you refuse to answer I'm going to kill one of your teammates. If you still don't answer then at least you'll all die and be out of my way any way. So this is you're last chance. Willing to talk?" he asked with just a trace of humor in his voice. For a moment Chase was silent. He thought about it for a moment and finally responded. The calmness in his voice was breaking. "I'll sleep on it." he said. "You can leave now Mr Luthor. Goodbye." he said. This time it was Luthor who was silent. "Very well" he said finally. "Since this may well be the last decision you ever make I shall grant you a night to consider it. Goodnight I shall return in the morning." with that he turned his chair and floated away. As soon as he was gone the Anomalies broke out into conversation. "Way to go Chase!" Creature exclaimed. "I guess that's why we made you the leader." he said. "Shut up for a minute Andrew" Inferno interrupted. "What good will a night to consider it do? You're not considering what he said are you?" Chris asked from a cell that Spider couldn't see from his own. "Of course not" Chase replied. "We're not going to be here in the morning." he said. "Sarah?" he called out. "You there?" "Nehhh" Came Sarah's groggy reply from the cell right next to Chase's own. "How did you, Chris and Cal get captured.?" Chase asked. "Well let's see. Chris couldn't use his powers. Cal was unconscious and I'm not really a match for a hundred heavily armed soldier guys." she responded angrily. "Fair enough. I'm sorry. How well does your collar work?" he asked. "Can you still phase?"  
  
"Umm I don't know" she answered. "What? What do you mean you don't know?" Spider asked in surprise. "I haven't tried yet." she said. "Well try!" Chase yelled. In response to this there was silence. "Sarah don't!" Came Jason's voice from somewhere beyond Wraith's cell. "I just checked out these collars. They aren't only designed to stop our powers they're also rigged to go off if any of us leave our cells." "Oh well thanks a lot Chase. You almost got me killed." Sarah said. "Almost got all of us killed actually. They're rigged to go off at once if anyone leaves their designated area." "Crap." Chase responded. "Can you tap into the system and shut them off or anything." he asked. "Umm I can link up with their network and shut off the inhibitor portion of them. But I can't tamper with the explosive part. If I open them or try to disarm the explosives. It'll just blow us all up." Jason responded. "Umm okay... gimme a minute." Chase called out. And after a moment or so of silence he spoke again. "Okay Jason what about Cal's helmet thing? What's the deal with that?" He asked. Jason's response was immediate. "Same thing as the collars. One part inhibitor, one part explosive electric leash." "Okay shut off the inhibitor part of all of the collars and devices and such and see what you can do about stopping to flow of drugs into Tank" Spider ordered. "On it." Tech responded. And after another couple of minutes he spoke again. "Okay done but given what they've been drugging Nariman with I still don't think he'll be up for a while." "That's alright, good work J" after a moment of thought he called out again. "Cal?" he called. "Yes Chase?" came the telepathic response in his head. "How you feeling Cal?" Spider asked. "well I'm okay I guess. Got a bit of a headache though" he answered. "Any chance you can contain the blasts if these collars go off?" Spider asked. "Well that depends. How big a blast are we talking about?" Psyche asked in response. At this Tech cut in. "Near as I can tell it's the equivalent of a pound or so of C4." he said. "I'm also trying to hack into the force field projectors in here to give you a hand." "Good thinking Tech. Well Psyche? Feel up to it?" at this Psyche grinned although nobody could see it. "Ready when you are" he answered. "Alright good. Wraith phase into Tech's cell and bring him out of it into the main room. Tech hack into the controls there and open our cells as well as find out where our stuff is and the best route out of here. Oh and shut down any security systems you run across while you're at it." Spider ordered. "Anyone else got any other ideas before they start?" in response Sage spoke up. "Would it be alright if I drained the electricity out of my collar and froze it as much as I could? It's not that I don't trust Psyche's shields or anything I'd just feel better if I did something to protect myself anyway." she said. "Go for it Telli. Anyone else?" Chase asked. "No? Alright then. Get to it guys." in response to his command nobody said anything. After waiting a moment he was about to give his order again when his collar exploded. His first thought was a synonym for poop, his second thought was why didn't his spider sense go off? And his third was "Oh" for all the blinding light of the explosion the destructive power of it was relatively little. In fact the explosion only expanded about an 8th of an inch before it hit an invisible wall of force and stopped. So all together the only damage the bomb did was to blind the anomalies for an instant and then to fill the cells with the faint smell of smoke. "Good job Cal" Chase muttered and several other Anomalies seconded the thought. In seconds Spider could see Tech and Wraith walk into view in front of his cell and he watched as Tech started accessing a control panel on one wall of the room. Almost immediately the red line around the doorway of his cell faded from view and Spider and the other Anomalies stepped out of their cells. After scanning the computer systems for a moment Tech located the Anomalies' personal effects and remotely opened a locker that was hidden in a wall right next to the control panel. A moment later he found a way to remotely inject a "wake up drug" into the still unconscious Tank and he too walked out of his cell to join the others.  
  
All in all it took less than five minutes before the Anomalies were organized, out of their prison and on their way to freedom. They would have been out of the mansion and into the daylight in five minutes flat had not the Avengers noticed their escape attempt and put themselves directly in the way. Instead in five minutes, all hell, once again broke loose. 


End file.
